


Station 1327

by Miss_Psychotic, nommedeplume



Category: Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - Firefighters, Brian is a little shit, Dom takes safety very seriously, Drunken Shenanigans, Everyone Is Alive, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, Firefighter AU, Fluff, Homophobia, Homophobic Slurs, Homophobic!Vince, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Onesided Mia/Brian, Romance, Sassy Uncle Hobbs, Slow Burn, canon level gore/injury, canon level violence, inappropriate use of fireman pole, sexual content in later chapters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-07-05
Packaged: 2018-03-31 01:55:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 52,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3960064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miss_Psychotic/pseuds/Miss_Psychotic, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nommedeplume/pseuds/nommedeplume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Brian begins his new career as a rookie fire fighter at Station 1327, run by Captain Tanner and Lieutenant Toretto. Unfortunately for Brian, his recklessness and stubbornness gets him on Lieutenant Toretto's bad side. </p><p> </p><p>Aka The adorable and hilarious firefighter AU we should have posted months ago.... sorry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so sorry for how long this took to come out!  
> Shit has been hectic with RL and everything.  
> But fear not! Chapter 1 is here and We are hoping to have a new chapter each week!

Dominic Toretto yawned himself awake as he sat in the recreation room at firehouse 1327.

 

The Lieutenant had another six hours on this shift before he had his rostered two day break. Letty, his ladder operator was sprawled out watching TV. Leon and Jesse, the two juniors, were playing a game of cards quietly at the table. Vince, his best friend, was no where to be seen but that just generally meant he was over in the medical bay trying to flirt with Dom's little sister Mia.

 

"5 hours and 36 minutes!" Someone made the call.

 

As if on cue the bell rang. "Structure fire. Partially contained, code one, team two." The dispatch operator spoke over the Pa system.

 

"That's us! Let's move!" Dom called out, the spike of adrenaline waking him up.

 

The team moved quickly into the Pumper and we're out the building in a little over 4 minutes.

 

***

 

Brian swallowed his nerves, drumming his hands on the steering wheel as he gathered his courage. Taking a breath, he looked over the firehouse, sizing up his new home.

 

He'd graduated from the academy a week ago and had been told to report to firehouse 1327 to start his time as a probationer.

 

Grabbing his bag, he walked through the front door. The receptionist guided him to Captain Tanner's office.

 

"You must be Brian." The man greeted kindly when he saw the blonde.

 

"Yes sir." The younger answered, taking a seat in front of the Captain’s desk.

 

"I served with your father. He was a good man. A great firefighter." The Captain told him.

 

"Thank you, sir." Brian smiled tightly, it was what everyone always told him, what everyone was expecting him to be.

 

"Welcome to firehouse 1327. We're happy to have you here and I'm sure you'll be a great addition to the house. Come on, I'll show you around." The Captain told him getting up from his desk.

 

"Thank you, sir." Brian repeated and followed the veteran firefighter to the locker room. The rest of the team were undressing, obviously having just returned from a call.

 

"Everyone, this is our new probie Brian. I expect you all to show him a proper 1327 welcome." The Captain called over the noise of people chatting and slamming locker doors.

 

"Dom." The Captain addressed a tall bald man.  "I'm trusting you to show him around."

 

Dom looked up when he heard his name and glanced over at the probie. Typical. Blonde haired and blue eyed, the kid probably watched shows like Chicago Fire or some bullshit and thought being a firefighter was a glorified job.

 

“Sir.” Dom started. “With all due respect. My team and I just finished a 16 hour and I’m due some time off.”

 

Tanner held up his hand to silence Dom’s protest. “Just show him around and introduce him to day shift. I think Giselle is leading this week.”

 

Dom sighed but nodded, moving quicker to change into his street clothes and brush past Brian. “Follow.” He ordered, wanting to be home and start his two day love affair with his bed.

 

Brian was quite taken aback by the brush off he was receiving from the Lieutenant. He had been expecting a warmer welcome.

 

“Hey man.  I really appreciate your showing me around.” He spoke to the big man’s back as he led him out of the locker room.

 

Dom sighed when he heard the effort the guy was making. Today was his first day and Dom had been tasked with the warm welcome.

 

The big man stopped and waited for the blonde to catch up and walk beside him, instead of behind him.

 

“Sorry, it’s been a long night.” The Lieutenant apologised and held out his hand for the guy to shake.

 

“I’m Dom, Dom Toretto."

 

“Don’t sweat it. Brian O’Connor.”  Brian said easily taking the man’s hand and giving it a firm shake, bracing himself for the reaction he always got when people in the job heard his name.

 

“O’Connor?” Dom paused. “As in Earl O’Connor’s son?” Great. So not only was this kid some kind of wanna-be he was riding on the coattails of his dad’s legacy. What a joke.

 

“One and the same.”  Brian smiled disarmingly, Dom was apparently on the ‘he’s just here because his dad was a hero’ team.  That was alright, he’d prove them all wrong.  He’d earned his place here and he knew it, that’s all that mattered.

 

“So is there somewhere I can set this down?”  He asked, gesturing to his bag, and changing the subject.

 

“You’ll get shown a locker from the day shift leader. Giselle is great, she’ll get you settled.” Dom replied, voice still civil but there was a tone of disinterest there.

 

“Giselle, you in?” Dom called as they headed into the truck bay where day shift were checking over the truck for damage and doing their safety checks.

 

“Morning.” She smiled at Dom. “Who’s the blonde?”

 

“This is Brian O’Connor, our new Probie.” Dom told her. “I trust you can take it from here?”

 

“Sure Dom, go get some sleep.” She spoke softly and put a hand on his shoulder.

 

“Thanks. See you sorry lot in a few days.” He teased and headed back to the locker room to grab his bag and head home.

 

Brian watched him go, a small frown on his face.  The guy was seriously going to hold his dad against him?  He wasn’t going to give him a fair shot? Brian sighed softly to himself. He didn’t have to like the guy he just had to work with him, that’s what he would do.

 

He turned his attention to the woman in front of him and listened intently as she gave him the tour and showed him where to put his belongings.

 

His first call was terrifying and and exhilarating.  It was a Structure fire, a house, they were able to get everyone out with no injuries and they had it under control quickly.  Brian was so excited to finally be living his dream.

 

***

 

Dom spent his two days off as he thought he would. The first 12 hours was sleeping like a log, the next few working out, followed by grocery shopping, house cleaning and laundry, then finally vegging out on the couch and not doing much at all. Heaven.

 

Dom loved his mandatory two day leave before a shift rotation change.

 

Coming onto days wasn’t great but he’d managed to reset his body clock. He arrived at the station at 6am, high fiving Giselle as he entered.

 

“How’d the Probie go?” He wasn’t really looking forward to working with him.

 

“Good, he did really well. I was impressed.” Giselle told him with a grin, knowing that wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

 

“Okay. Thanks.” He nodded and watched her leave.

 

Leon and Jesse were already in the Rec room, talking with the blonde haired Probie as they waited for a call out.

 

“Morning Dom.” Jesse smiled.

 

“Morning Jess."

 

“Morning Lieutenant.”  Brian greeted with a smile.  He wasn’t going to let the big man’s sour attitude get to him.

 

“Morning.” Dom nodded back and turned his attention to the TV screen.

 

Letty arrived a few moments later and joined him on the couch.

 

She sat closer than was necessary and tried to talk to him as they watched.

 

“Letty,” He told her in a playful warning tone.

 

Letty huffed. “Fine.” and shuffled over to a more appropriate distance.

 

“Who the hell is this?” Vince frowned staring at Brian.

 

“Probie, O’Connor’s boy.” Letty called out.

 

Vince eyed the blonde and left the room again.

 

Jesse chuckled. “Ignore him.” He told Brian. “We always do.”

 

Brian nodded to Jesse, he’d just met the younger man but he liked him instantly. He didn’t hold his name against him.

 

“Who was he anyway?”

 

“Vince.  He’s kind of an asshole, but he’s a good guy.”  Jesse answered.

 

Brian chuckled.

 

“Okay then.”

 

“Probie.” Dom called out.

 

“At the start of each shift the team checks over the gear. You should know this already. I need you in the truck bay, check in with the medical team and help them clean out any trash or medical waste they might have. Once that’s done you can sweep and mop the truck bay floors. We have an official chore roster that goes up after each shift rotation. I’ll have it done in an hour so check back for your duties.”

 

Brian bit back an annoyed sigh and stood from the table.  He tried not to let it get to him that he was the only one getting called out when Jesse, Leon and Letty were just sitting around as well, or that he was getting the scrub work in addition to regular chores.  He knew he was going to end up doing the unwanted jobs, but the guy didn’t have to be an ass about it.

 

“Yes, Sir.”  He answered shortly and headed out to the truck bay. Making a beeline over to where a dark haired woman was walking around the ambulance. She was looking over it intently, muttering to herself before she disappeared into the back.

 

“Anything I can help you with?”  He asked.

 

Mia jumped, not having heard the man approach.

 

“Oh my god.” She held her hand over her heart. “Don’t sneak up on me like that.” She hissed, but her expression was playful.

 

“You must be the Probie Dom was grumbling about. I’m Mia, his sister.” She offered her hand to him.

 

“I’m sorry.  I’ll knock next time.”  He smiled kindly knocking on the side of the vehicle.

 

“I’m Brian. Unfortunately I don't think I made a great impression on your brother.  Hopefully I have better luck with you.” He took her hand and shook it.

 

Mia snorted an unattractive laugh. “Please, no one makes a great impression on Dom.” She grinned, carefully eyeing the man up and down.

 

“So I take it he put you on 'awful chores no one else wants’ duty?” She asked, a kind smile on her face. The boy was good looking, the son of legend Earl O’Connor, and damn did he get his daddy's best traits. Mia was starting to rethink her dating co workers rule.

 

“Curse of being the new guy.”  Brian laughed.

 

“So is there anything I can help you with, cause otherwise I’ll get started on the floors before your brother makes me scrub the toilets or something equally horrendous.”  He teased.  

 

Mia was a nice looking girl.  She and her brother shared a lot of the same traits. If Brian was into women he would definitely be asking her for her number.  His tastes however ran a different route, one that wasn’t likely to pay off.

 

Mia gave a flirtatious giggle.

 

“I’m sure I’ll be okay. Can’t have you scrubbing the toilets on your first official rotation with Squad 2.” She teased, and went back to counting stock on her supplies. Her partner, Hobbs, would be in any minute.

 

Brian smiled.

 

“Thanks Mia, you’re the best.”  He told her as he walked away to find the broom.

 

He swept the floor whistling as he worked, talking with Leon and Jesse as they looked over the truck and made sure it was ready for the next call out.  He had the floor done in just under an hour and went to check in with Dom.

 

“Checks are done, floor is done.”  He told the big man with a grin.  There was no way the man could find fault with his work, he’d completed it quickly and well.  He was proud of himself.

 

“Good job.” Dom nodded.

 

“The roster is up in the kitchen, make sure you check it and initial the bottom to confirm you saw it and know what you’re doing for the next two weeks.” He told the blonde and tried to hide his grin.

 

Vince let out a low snort of amusement and Dom glared at him to keep quiet.

 

Leon had also had a few comments about the chores list, the new kid needed to be initiated properly.

 

The siren sounded and had all their attention.

 

“Structure fire. Full involved Business. Code 1. Team two. Medical One.”

 

“Go time!” Vince grinned.

 

“You heard the lady. Lets move people!” Dom shouted already running to the fire pole to drop down to the Truck bay.

 

Brian turned from where he’d been about to check the duty roster and followed Dom and the others down the pole into the truck bay to grab his gear and get into the truck.

 

Dom's head was in turn out mode.

 

He barked out orders over the coms while Letty drove them to the site. He coordinated with Central Control and Dispatch while simultaneously relaying the information to the team.

 

"Right, we've got two inside trapped. I'll be on BA and I'll need a fly weight with me. Jesse or Probie work it out between you I don't care."

 

They arrived and instantly the team sprang into action.

Leon helped him into the breathing gear and he stood at the door of the burning building waiting for his buddy. It was Probie.

 

"You're first listen to my commands and follow my directions. Watch your feet and watch your head. Hand signals for help." He made a thumbs up "keep going"

He made a fist "stop"

He made a quick wave of his hand "help."

 

"Now, you good to go?" Dom’s voice was firm and every bit the authority figure he was.

 

He waited for the thumbs up and then put his hand on Brian's shoulder.

 

"BA team one moving forward. Start air countdown 15 minutes."

 

Brian headed through the door, looking around intently for their two trapped victims.  There was a lot of smoke and he moved slowly, checking thoroughly.  They made it to the back of the store, and found their first victim. He made a fist for Dom to stop and then pointed to the young woman, who was collapsed in a corner.

 

Dom moved slowly, checking for a pulse, but couldn’t feel one.

 

He made a hand gesture pointing to the woman and then towards the exit, back the way they came. Dom was to carry her while Brian lead the way.

 

The larger man knelt down and picked up the unconscious woman, holding her tightly and following behind the heavily covered man towards the exit.

 

Brian waited until Dom had the woman secure and then made his way carefully to the exit.  The smoke was thickening and there were some visible flames now.  He knew they had to get her out so they could search the second floor for the other victim.  He waited for Dom to hand the woman off to Mia and her partner so they could go back inside.

 

“Lets move.” Dom placed his hand back on Brian’s shoulder to signal he was ready.

 

They entered the building again, this time making a beeline for the main stairs. They looked bad but thankfully the building had fire stairs near the back. He hoped the second trapped person was in there.

 

Dom nudged Brian’s shoulder to get him to head in the direction of the fire door and special staircase.

 

The blonde didn’t hesitate, picking up the pace.

 

They made it to the stairs and entered the space. There was smoke but there was no flame or heat.

 

“Up.” Dom signalled, pointing directly up.

 

The door to the second floor was warm to touch, by opening it they could potentially be giving the fire more oxygen but it was something they needed to do.

 

Standing behind the door so that it would be a shield as they opened it Dom had Brian hinge it open.

 

There was no sudden fire flare which meant the top floor wasn’t as badly engulfed as they expected.

 

The second level was a mine field. Holes had appeared in the floor from the roof of the bottom level collapsing. It wasn’t safe to be standing on.

 

Brian’s weight didn’t seem to worry the weakened structure but it groaned under Dom’s.

 

Dom clenched his hand down on Brian’s shoulder and waited for him to turn to hold up a fist. Stop. Go back. Too dangerous.

 

A sound of shouting caught their attention.

 

“Help! Please! I hurt my ankle! Please someone help me!”

 

Dom knew the look on Brian’s face.

 

“No!” He said firmly. “That’s a direct order. The floor won’t hold you!”

 

Brian looked back in the direction of the person shouting he could see him a young man limping his way over.

 

"Please. Please help me." He cried again.

 

Brian couldn't leave him. He could get to him, it wasn't that far. He was lighter than Dom, he knew he would be able to make it. He looked back at Dom and his stern look and then turned and moved forward slowly, carefully.

 

He reached the man quickly and pulled his arm over his shoulder. The floor began to groan under their weight.

 

"Come on slow and steady I got you." They carefully made their way to the door where Dom was waiting, rage in his eyes. The floor creaked more pieces falling as they moved. Finally, they reached the door.

 

Dom moved and took the weight of the man off Brian.

 

"Move!" He ordered to the insubordinate blonde and helped the man down the stairs as Brian lead the way.

 

They made it out of the building just in time for more of the first floor roof to collapse behind them, not on them.

 

Dom handed the guy over to Mia and whipped off his helmet, rounding on Brian.

 

"The hell do you think you're doing?!" He growled at the blonde.

 

"You disobeyed a direct order! You put yourself and your superior in danger!"

 

Brian was just taking off his mask and tank when Dom rounded on him.

 

"I was trying to save a guys life." Brian retorted. He couldn't believe Dom was after him like this.

 

"He was right there how could we just leave him?"

 

"You could have sent the both of you through the floor! You would have blocked my exit, meaning no communication with the outside. We could have got the ladder through the window to rescue him without reckless endangerment!" Dom growled louder.

 

"There wasn't time for that and we made out just fine. I was careful." Brian defended. Yeah a lot of things could have gone wrong but they hadn't and everyone was safe, that's what counted.

 

"We did this time!" Dom shouted. "What about next time you disobey a direct order? Or the time after that?" He spat.

 

"Just because your father was a great man and a hero, doesn't automatically make you one. You have to earn the respect and the chops to question orders. Probies follow what they're told. Do you understand?"

 

"That's your real problem isn't it. My father. You've hated me since the second you heard my name.  I am not my father." Brian shouted at him.

 

"No you're not, because you're father wouldn't have stupidly risked his life, and that of a senior member of his team, for a rescue that could have happened in a more safe and controlled manner. Your dad isn't here. You are. You're the one who put this entire rescue opp in jeopardy." Dom was shouting back just as loud.

 

"Now gear off and get on the pump hose. I take it you do know how to point and shoot and if you don't, take a step back, so the people who give a shit about the success of this team,  and not just themselves, can end this and we can all go back to base." The larger man was panting from the effort of the shouting match as he turned his back and moved to the cabin of the fire truck, radioing to Control and Dispatch to updating their status.

 

Brian followed Dom's order fuming as he went. He couldn't believe Dom screamed at him like that. He'd done what had to be done, he'd rescued the guy and everyone was safe. He'd disobeyed Dom but the end had justified the means so the guy had no right to chew him out like that. The guy hated him because of his dad and he would probably never get over it so fuck him.

 

Brian did his job and didn't say anything to anyone the entire time, and when they got back to the station he stripped off, showered, and helped right the gear before going off to find Jesse hoping the man would offer a sympathetic ear

 

Dom kept a sharp watch on everything Probie did from that point on. They had the fire under control a few hours later and blacking out took another two. By the time they got back to the station it was half way through their shift.

 

Dom was glad for the shower, even if Vince had decided to talk his ear off about everything.

 

He helped his team check over their gear, cleaning what needed to be cleaned and then he headed to Captain Tanner's office.

 

He relayed what had happened at the scene, explained the two other viable options for getting that second trapped victim out.

 

"He's a danger to the team. He lacks discipline, has no respect for authority and his recklessness could have gotten all three of us killed. I can't trust him in the field." Dom finished and waited for Tanner to speak

 

“It’s his third day Dom. I can have him put on official report for disobeying your order, but I’m not going to remove him. Giselle didn’t report any of those issues.”  Tanner answered the irate Lieutenant calmly.

 

“Giselle wasn’t inside a fully involved structure with both their lives and that of an innocent on the line.” Dom replied, more controlled but no more calm.

 

“He’s not ready, Sir. He shouldn’t have been put into 1327 straight out of academy. He should have been put to 204 or 301, small counties with fewer serious incidents. He has no confidence in his job, just bravado and his thirst for his own recognition outside his dad. I can’t work with him.”

 

“The fact is that he was placed here.  Yes, he’s young and brash, but the only way to get over that is with experience Dom, and you know it.  There was another young firefighter I knew who had many of the same issues and he turned out alright, with time and a good role model.”  Tanner gave Dom a pointed look.  

 

“Find a way to work with him, teach him better. I’ll speak with him about his attitude. Tell him I want to see him.”  Tanner told the Lieutenant.

 

Dom gritted his teeth at being compared to the blonde.  Dom would never have put anyone else’s life in danger.

 

“Sir.” He nodded and turned to leave.

 

He made his way to the rec room, knowing the blonde and Jesse were probably in there playing cards or talking.

 

“O’Connor. Captain wants a word.” Dom said firmly, wandering to the kitchen.

 

Tanner wants him to ensure the kid gets to work out his brash personality, and have Dom teach him better? Dom could do that. He headed to the meal board where the team planned the weekly lunches and assigned a cook.

 

Dom crossed off the next day’s beef stew and changed it to Beef Chili made by Dominic Toretto. He heard Vince snort a laugh behind him.

 

Brian found Jesse in the rec room after they finished cleaning and stowing the gear.  He’d been hoping for some sympathy, but he found none when he’d complained about Dom. The younger man let him rant and then spoke quietly.

 

“Yeah man, I get it he could have done it in a less public venue but, he’s the Lieutenant for a reason, Brian.  You can’t just ignore what he has to say.”  He saw Brian about to protest and shook his head.

 

“I know, it all worked out fine. This time. It might not next time. You had no idea how stable the floor was, no one did. If it had collapsed, you’d have died, and you would have killed that innocent guy you were trying to save, and you would have trapped Dom in there with you. Three of you would have died.  He’s not pissed because you ignored him, well he is kind of, but you put yourself in danger for no reason. We had a ladder ready to go up, Dom knew it. It would have been quicker and safer. You took an unnecessary risk, and then instead of accepting the fact that you made a mistake, you argued with him. That’s why he’s pissed.  He’s the leader. You need to listen to him next time. He knows what he’s doing.” Jesse finished his speech quietly but firmly, looking Brian straight in the eyes.  

 

Brian looked away, he hadn’t thought about it like that.  He’d gotten caught up in the moment and wanted to save the guy, nothing else had mattered.  He never thought about anything else.  Maybe he should next time.

 

Jesse was shuffling a deck of cards slowly and absently.

 

“Wanna play?”

 

“Sure.”  

 

They were on their third hand of Gin when Dom came in and barked that the Captain wanted to see him.

 

“Good Luck.” Jesse teased.

 

“Yeah, thanks.” He waved as he headed to the Captain’s office and knocked on the door.

 

“You wanted to see me Sir?”

 

Tanner nodded and gestured for Brian to come in.

 

“Take a seat.” He offered and waited until the younger man did.

 

“I assume you’re aware that Lieutenant Toretto has been in here reporting the incident earlier?”

 

When the blonde nodded, Tanner sighed softly.

 

“I understand what it’s like to be new. I understand you want to do what you feel is best, even if that means ignoring your superiors. There’s a whole section on your attitude in your file from the academy.”

 

The older man leant back on his chair, hands behind his head.

 

“That said I’m not switching your team. You proved yourself at the academy and you can do it here. Dom is firm with his team and right now you’re an unknown outsider. They’re a really tight knit group. Work with them, learn with them. They’ll accept you over time. Until then, listen to Dom. He’s been through all of this before. Expect teething problems, but focus. I know what this means to you, I’d hate to have to be the one to take it away, okay?"

 

“Yes Sir.”  Brian answered quietly, he knew a dismissal when he heard one and he got up to leave the office.

 

“For the record, Sir. I’m sorry.  I wasn’t trying to be deliberately insubordinate.  I was just trying to save a guy’s life.”

 

The old Captain gave Brian a small smile. “I know. That’s the hard part of the job, but I think you’re learning that already.”  He spoke softly and closed his door behind the blonde.

 

***

 

Mia had just returned from handing off their two patients to the hospital, she was on her way to the shower when she spotted Brian exiting Tanner’s office.

 

“How’d it go?” She asked him. She’d heard Dom chewing him out before they’d taken the patients to the hospital.

 

“I’m arrogant and disrespectful apparently.”  He tried for humor but his tone didn’t quite get there. He really wanted to fit in here.  He wanted the perfect life he’d always dreamed of, complete with its own firehouse family, pissing off his Lieutenant and disappointing his Captain on his third day was not how he hoped to accomplish it.

 

Mia gave a kind laugh. “Who isn’t?” She teased and slung an arm around his shoulder. “C’mon lets go to the gym, you can punch out your frustration and I can run a few miles to relax. We’ll play 20 questions while we do so.” She told him, glad to have some company.

 

“And afterwards we’ll grab some food and I’m sure Jesse won’t hesitate to rope you in for a game of Gin.”

 

“Well how can I resist a plan like that.”  He chuckled lightly, slinging an arm around her waist and letting her lead him off.

 

They got changed and as he taped up his hands so he could pound on the heavy bag for awhile, he turned to where she was setting up the treadmill.

 

“So since you suggested it, I’ll go first.  How long have you been at the house?”  He asked her, finishing his prep and landing a hard blow to the synthetic bag.

 

Mia started up a good paced jog, long even strides, controlling her breathing. “Lets see, I’m 26 so about four years. I basically went straight to medical school out of high school and once I finished my Paramedical course I did an EMT qualification too and ended up here, since I was usually patching up Dom at home anyway.” She chuckled.

 

“I know who your dad is, was he the reason you joined up?” She asked, wanting the tough questions out the way first so they could move to more flirty territory like she planned.  

 

Brian sighed and hit the bag a little harder than was necessary at the mention of his father.

 

“Most people would like to believe that.  My dad lived for this job.”  He spat.

 

“I joined the fire service because I wanted to help people.  My dad had nothing to do with it. Actually that’s not quite true.  He’s the reason it took me so long to join up. He hounded me my whole life about it. Pushing and pushing, and finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I ran away from home, did anything and everything I could, to piss him off.  Eventually I realized that I really wanted to fight fires, because I wanted to, not because of him, and I came back and joined the academy.”  Brian didn’t know why he was pouring his heart out to this girl having just met her, but Mia was easy to talk to and it felt good to have some of it off of his chest.  

 

Everyone always assumed he was doing this because of his father, because he wanted to be just like him, when the opposite was actually the truth.

 

“So you went to medical school.  Are you going to go back?  Become a doctor?  Or do you love the excitement and glamor of being an EMT?”  

 

Mia was silent as Brian spoke. She understood his actions more clearly now and had half a mind to talk Dom into being nicer to the guy, but it wasn’t her place to tell his story.

 

“Ha yeah, I always wanted to be a doctor but I’m good at this and I help people just as much as a doctor would. I see it as being on the front lines and they clean up the mess. Ask anyone and they’ll say the first 10 minutes of first aid are the most important, that’s me. That’s my work. I’m the difference between life or death most days, well, me and Hobbs, but it feels good knowing we make that difference.”

 

Mia blushed when she realised she’d been babbling on and on.

 

“Sorry. I don’t know why I told you all that.” She admitted.

 

“Okay lets skip past the deep and serious stuff, you got a girlfriend?” She asked him.

 

Brian smiled, he liked Mia’s attitude.  She had a good heart.  He laughed at her next question though.

 

“Nope, I sure don’t.”  He chuckled.  He didn’t hide his sexuality but it wasn’t the first thing he revealed about himself either.

 

“What about you?  Got a nice man at home?  Or has big bad Dom scared them all away?”  He teased.

 

Mia laughed loudly and hard enough, she stumbled her strides and had to quickly speed up to stop from falling.

 

“No, no boyfriend.” She smiled. “And Dom can try scare them away, I don’t live with him anymore so what he doesn’t know can’t hurt him,” She gave a flirty wink.

 

“Watch yourself.”  He teased as she nearly fell off the treadmill.

 

“I believe it’s your turn to ask a question. You know, if you’re sure you’re not about to kill yourself on that thing?  Need me to call an ambulance?”  He teased.

 

Mia gave him a weak glare.

 

"Ha ha Mr. comedian." She shot back.

 

"Hmmm, what can I ask. Oh I know. What are you doing after shift on Friday?" She asked him, losing confidence part way through.

 

“I’m not sure but something tells me I might have plans in a few minutes.”  Brian answered cheekily.

 

“Why?”

 

Mia blushed brightly.

 

"Do you want to go get dinner?" she asked. "There's a great place over on 5th and they serve us quick because they know we want to get home and get in bed." She paused realizing what she'd said.

 

"I mean after a shift we just want to sleep so... I'm just going to shut up now."

 

Brian laughed heartily at the look on Mia’s face.

 

“Dinner after shift, before returning to our own,” he stressed the word to watch the look on her face again, it was priceless, “beds, sounds great.”  He answered.  It would be nice to get out and spend some time with his new friend outside of the firehouse.

 

Mia nodded. "Okay. Awesome."

 

She ended the program on the treadmill and picked up her towel.

 

"I'm gonna shower and head to the rec room. See you at lunch."

 

Brian nodded.

 

“See you then.”  

 

He spend a few more minutes finishing his normal routine on the bag before hitting the shower himself and and heading to the rec room.  Jesse was cooking up some pasta.

 

“Anything I can do to help?”  The blonde asked his friend.

 

“Umm you can grab that tray of garlic bread and pop it in the over if you like.”  Jesse directed him.

 

“Sure.”  Brian agreed happily and did as he was asked, before grabbing down plates and utensils for everyone.

 

It didn’t take long for the bread to cook and before he knew it Jesse was calling everyone to the kitchen for grub.

 

Mia sat and watched Jesse cook, chatting with him idly, she happened to notice the change of menu for tomorrow.

 

“Jesse, is Dom going to do what I think he is?” She asked him, exasperated.

 

The kid gave her his best innocent look.

 

With an eye roll Mia waited until Jesse was distracted and Brian had put the bread in the oven before leaning over and whispering softly.

 

“Tomorrow, we’re going out for lunch, don’t eat the Chili.” She warned.

 

“Um ok?”  Brian answered confusedly but went with it.  

 

He filled his plate when the food was ready, and sat down by Jesse and Leon to eat.   

 

Mia came and joined them.

 

“Not eating with big bro today?”  Leon teased her.

 

Mia shrugged. “I eat with him everyday, I’m teaching him to be independent for a little bit.” She teased.

 

“I’m sure that’s the only reason.” Leon nodded sagely.

 

Mia glared.

 

Partway through their meal Dom returned to the room with his empty bowl and fork, he dropped them in the sink. Vince and Letty did the same.

 

Mia went to make a fuss about everyone cleaning their own dishes but Dom just pointed to the chore board which clearly had Brian’s initials next to all his chores, one of which being the dishes.

 

With a grin, Dom sat down on the couch and picked up the days paper, reading slowly over all the articles even if they didn’t interest him, just wasting time until the next call out.

Brian ignored the smug look on Dom’s face as he got up to do the dishes, he understood that this was all part of being the new guy, that he was going to get the scrub work and he didn’t mind.  Jesse had even been nice enough to clean as he went somewhat, so he just had the dishes they’d eaten off of and a couple of pots.

 

He whistled as he scrubbed and dried the dishes, partly to make the time go faster and partly because he could see it needled at Dom.  When he was finished he sat back down next to Mia.

 

“So shall we continue our game from earlier?”  He asked with a smile.

 

Mia let out a low giggle and nodded. “Whose turn was it?” She asked him.

 

Dom’s shoulder twitched at the sound of Mia’s giggle, straining his ears to hear what they were talking about, but making sure to not seem obvious.

 

“I don’t remember.  Rock Paper Scissors for it?”  Brian teased.

 

Mia let out another small giggle and agreed.

 

She held out her fist and together they chanted quietly “Rock, paper scissors.” Mia ended with Paper.

 

Brian cut her paper with his scissors and laughed.  “Guess it’s my turn.”  He put his finger to his chin in an exaggerated thinking pose.

 

“Hmmmmmmmmm”  He hummed drawing out the anticipation.

 

“What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?”  He asked with a chuckle.

 

“Mint Chocolate, same as Dom’s we always had to fight over it back home.” She told him with a smile, relaxing back on her chair.

 

“If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?”

 

“Tacos.”  Brian answered instantly, smiling at Mia’s look.

 

“They’re nature’s perfect food, all of your major food groups and infinite ways to prepare them.”  He smirked.

 

“Favorite Movie?”

 

Mia rolled her eyes. “That’s such a man answer.” She told him.

 

She paused to think. “I don’t know. I don’t watch a lot of movies.” She admitted. “Maybe sometime you could take me to one?”

 

She paused for just a moment before asking. “Muscle car or Import?”

 

“Import and that was such a cop out.”  He told her giving her a nudge.

 

“If you could go anywhere in the world where would it be?”

 

“Spain,” Mia said instantly. “I’d love to visit spain, stop off in Italy on the way.” She sighed dreamily.

 

“Maybe one day.” She smiled to herself.

 

“Favorite book?” She asked.

 

“I dunno I’ve never been much of a reader.  I enjoyed 1984 when I read it in high school?  Does that count?”

 

“Do you surf?”

 

Mia snorted a loud laugh that drew the attention of Dom and Leon.

 

“That was an awful book.” She told him. “As for surfing-”

 

“Code One, Med team two, suspected cardiac arrest.” The Dispatcher called over the PA.

 

“Shit. That’s me and Hobbs. I’ll see you when I get back.” She promised and was up and out the door in seconds flat.

 

Dom had turned to look at them as Mia ran off, he was left staring at the empty seat next to Brian. He went back to his position before, sighing when he reached the end of the paper. Daytime TV sucked and he’d forgotten his laptop so movies and internet were out.

 

Now what?

 

Brian waved Mia off with a call of, “Go save some lives,”  and then looked around the room as she left.

 

Leon and Jesse were embroiled in a card game, Vince and Letty were up to something out in the engine bay. It was just him and Dom, who he caught looking around as awkwardly as he was. There was nothing really to do.  He could go do a few more of his chores but he didn’t really want to.  He picked up the TV remote and flipped the channels, he found some relatively ok cartoons and left them on.  

 

The awkward silence grew until Brian couldn’t stand it anymore.

 

“Do you really like mint chocolate chip ice cream?”  He said out of no where.  Maybe he and Dom could try to reach a truce.  He didn’t like the guy, but he had to work with him, and the awkwardness was killing him.

 

“How do you know that?” Dom asked, pretending he hadn’t just been listening to Mia and Brian’s conversation. He leveled a glare at the kid but it softened after a few moments.

 

He was trying and obviously Tanner had spoken to him. Maybe they could make this work. He didn’t have to like the guy or be his friend, just work with him in the field.

 

“Uh Mia, she said it was her favorite because you both used to share it.”  Brian answered, surprised the big man hadn’t just made a snide comment and stalked off.  

 

“She also said you used to get into trouble and she had to patch you up all the time.”  Brian smiled cheekily.

 

Dom rolled his eyes. “Don’t believe everything Mia says. She’s a good girl but she doesn’t always play by the rules.” He warned.

 

“And since I can see how she looks at you and you haven’t shut her down I’m going to say this, not as your Lieutenant but as her brother: You hurt her and no one will find the body.”

 

Brian nodded seriously.

 

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”  Brian answered.  He knew Mia was flirting with him, he wasn’t blind, and if he was into women he’d be thrilled, as it was he didn’t want to crush her so quickly.  He’d keep it casual and tell her soon.

 

“So what happens when there’s nothing on TV, and no calls, Lieutenant?  What are we supposed to do?”  He asked lightly.

 

“Get our chores done, train up the Probies.” Dom shrugged. “To be honest though I can’t be fucked right now. That last call just drained me. You’re a shit when you wanna be O’Connor.” Dom told him, it wasn’t cruel or forceful, just a sighed response

 

He let out a small yawn and checked the clock. “4 hours.” He nodded to himself and looked around the room.

 

“I guess I could get Leon and Jesse to run you through the training exercises.” He thought outloud.

 

“Or...we could watch crap cartoons.”  Brian suggested wiggling the remote slightly and raising his eyebrows.  He was tired too.

 

“Crap cartoons it is.” Dom nodded and relaxed back into the couch, closing his eyes for just a moment.

 

When he woke it was almost end of shift and Mia and Hobbs were entering the room, Mia looked upset. Shit, she must have lost a patient.

 

Brian jerked awake when he heard Mia and Hobbs enter the room.  Mia looked really upset, he glanced between her and her brother as she went and sat by herself in a chair across the room.  He didn’t know if he should go after her or not.  He glanced helplessly at Dom.  He wanted to help his new friend and had no idea how.

 

Dom stood up slowly and moved to kneel next to Mia’s lonely chair. She turned to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he wrapped his around her middle, just holding like that for a few moments.

 

“What happened?”

 

“Supposed cardiac, got there and the dad was already dead, his son was 4 and wouldn’t let go of the body so we could take him to the hospital. The kid just refused to leave his dad’s side.” She spoke softly.

 

Dom held her tighter and waited for her breathing to even out a little more and for her to begin to pull away.

 

“You wanna talk to Tanner?” He asked.

 

“Nah, I’m good. Nothing a Toretto hug can’t fix.” She teased.

 

“Next off rotation we’ll have Toretto Time.” He promised.

 

Mia gave a small smile. “Done.”

 

Feeling much better she stood from the chair and flopped down on the couch next to Brian.

 

“Have you been watching cartoons since I left?” She asked incredulously.

 

“Well they were on, but really Dom and I decided it was naptime.”  He answered proudly, he hoped his goofy little act would cheer her up a bit.

 

“Naptime? With my Brother?” She asked him, looking between Dom and Brian questioningly.

 

“No.” Dom told Mia firmly. “This does not make us friends.” He warned and turned to head to the locker room.

 

Brian almost recoiled from the bite in Dom’s words.  He’d thought they were getting somewhere, but apparently not.

 

“Well I guess there goes that attempt at a truce.”  Brian muttered softly to himself.

 

“It was more mutual napping than actually napping together.”  Brian stressed with a grin.  

 

“Come on.  We’re off shift.  You want to get some ice cream?  I’ve heard mint chocolate chip is especially good.”  He asked her with a small nudge to her arm.

 

Mia gave Brian a small smile.

 

“Sure, did you drive in or do you need a lift home after?” She asked, walking with him to the locker room. Technically they had another 10 minutes to their shift, but they could take their time getting their things together, so if the siren went off again they could just apply for overtime.

 

“I drove do you want to meet there?  I was thinking that little place on 9th I like their sundaes.”  He grinned.

 

Mia nodded. “I love that place. Dom and I go there sometimes when we have matching days off.” She smiled.

 

“I’ll meet you there in 20 minutes.” She told him and headed over to the women’s side of the room, grabbing her stuff.

 

Dom caught Brian’s eye as she left, looking at the blonde over Jesse’s head, his look clearly warning him again about hurting her.

 

Brian nodded and grabbed his stuff heading out to his car.

 

He made it the ice cream shop before Mia and smiled when he saw her car pull up. He got out and held the door to the shop open for her.

 

"After you milady." He teased

 

Mia gave a small giggle, blushing slightly. Brian was a perfect gentleman and she was blown away by how wonderful he was. He probably snores, she thought to herself. There has to be something wrong with him.

 

They ordered their ice cream, Mia picking a cup of mint chocolate and sighing happily at the first bite.

 

"I love the ice cream here." She said happily.

 

Brian took a bite of his hot fudge sundae and closed his eyes savoring the flavor.

 

"So do I, their hot fudge sundaes are the best."

 

"So did you grow up around here?" He asked it seemed like Mia knew all the great little places and had great memories of the area.

 

Mia gave a small smile.

 

"Yeah, Dom and I are from Echo Park, we have this joke about us ending up that this fire station since the house we grew up in was number 1327. Dad used to make a joke about it when Dom first applied for the academy." she smiled fondly.

 

"What about you?"

 

"It must be fate." He chuckled

 

"I'm from just up the street from the firehouse. Dad wanted to be as close as possible." He said shortly.

 

"I ran away for awhile surfed my way up and down the coast. Crashed with a friend in Barstow for awhile. When my mom got sick I moved back to take care of her and bummed around for awhile taking care of her, before joining the academy." He finished.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry about your mom,” Mia said softly. “Dom and I lost our mother when we were young and I’m sure you know about what happened to our father a few years ago.” She spoke quietly.

 

“But it must have been good to get away for a while before then, surfing up and down the coast sounds amazing, I’d love to learn.” She hinted, giving him a small flirtatious smile.

 

"Well then I guess I'll just have to teach you." Brian said with a smile.

 

"You know in our spare time." He teased.

 

"How could you have lived by the ocean your entire life and never learned to surf?" He needled with a grin

 

Mia shrugged. “Dom and Dad were always more focused on cars so it rolled over to me. Then Dom got the idea to be a firefighter and I was already in my final year of highschool thinking being a doctor was a good way to go.” She shrugged and finished the last of her ice cream.

 

“I guess leisure stuff just wasn’t important to us, not when we could be saving lives.”

 

"Touche." Brian agreed scraping up the last of the hot fudge from the bottom of his cup.

 

"So you're into cars huh?" His face split on a yawn.

 

"You'll have to tell me all about it. Tomorrow." He grinned when she yawned too.

 

"Because I don't know about you, but I want my bed."

 

“Me too.” Mia agreed. “I mean, my bed not your...” She stopped. “I need to go home and sleep.” She clarified feeling the embarrassed blush creep up her cheeks.

 

Brian laughed.

 

"It's alright I knew what you meant." He gathered their trash and threw it  away holding the door open for her again.

 

"Sleep well." He bid her as they made their way to their cars

  
“Thank you, and you.” Mia replied climbing into her Integra quickly and heading off home, heart racing the whole time.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay we made our schedule!   
> Thank you to those who have commented and left kudos, we appreciate it!  
> Enjoy chapter 2

Dom paced the rec room floor, he knew Mia and Brian had had a date last night and he’d tried calling her house around 8ish but she didn’t pick up.

If Brian had taken her home to his place he’d put his fist through the blonde’s face.

“Why do you look all scowly?” Leon asked, taking a seat next to Jesse.

“He always looks scowly.” Jesse deadpanned.

“Because he’s an overprotective asshole of a brother.” Mia replied entering the room. “I didn’t answer your call because I was sleeping, how easy do you think I am?” She rose an eyebrow.

“I was just making sure you were okay.” Dom replied, frown still on his face.

Brian walked into the house with a giant smile on his face.

"Mia! Just the person I was looking for." He walked over to her and pulled a small wrapped package from behind his back.

"For you." He grinned handing her the wrapped up children's inflatable water wings and waiting to see her reaction.

Mia blushed at receiving a gift so soon and in front of everyone.

It didn’t feel heavy but the weight could be deceiving.

“Thank you Brian, this is too kind,” She said beginning to unwrap the gift. “You really shouldn’t....have...” She looked up from the water wings and glared.

“I do know how to swim, you jerk.” She told him, but she had a smile on her face.

Dom not so subtly looked over her shoulder to see what the gift was... Water wings? He frowned.

Brian grinned

"I was just being extra prepared. I would hate to have to call an ambulance or something while I taught you to surf." He teased nudging her shoulder and then whistling as he walked away to put his bag in his locker.

Mia was left standing in the rec room. Jesse and Leon giggling at her and Dom rather confused about what had just happened.

“I’m missing something.” Dom looked at her and the water wings.

Mia rolled her eyes.

“You don’t need to know.” She shot back and headed to the truck bay.

Dom sighed and went back to slow cooking the Chili for lunch, a separate pot of it with extra ingredients for Brian hidden from view.

Brian made his way to the truck bay and helped the rest of the team.

"Morning Jesse." He called to the younger man.

"Morning Brian." Jesse responded as he looked up from what he was doing.

Brian came over to help.

"So what was that all about with Mia?" Jesse asked him.

"Its nothing just a joke between us."

"Yeah well you better watch yourself Dom looked like he wanted to rip you head off.  No one messes with his sister." Leon told him obviously listening in on their conversation.

"I can handle Dom and I'm not "messing" with anyone." Brian responded.

“Sure looks like it.” Jesse shrugged.

“You did take her out last night, and you’re bringing her gifts this morning.” Leon added.

“And she’s been doing that giggling thing.” Jesse added.

“And the sighing.” Leon agreed.

“What are you two, 12?”  Brian asked.

“And I didn’t take her out, we met for ice cream.  Why are you two so interested anyway?”

Leon gave Jesse a look, who just shook his head sadly.

“You asked her somewhere after work, you no doubt spent time, alone, talking and getting to know each other, you’ve come back to work with inside jokes and a gag gift. There’s something going on.” The older of the two told Brian.

“And we’re interested because it’s your fourth day and Dom already wants to kill you, so seeing you dig yourself further into the hole is just the kind of drama and entertainment this house has been missing for months, ever since Mia very publicly rejected Vince.” Jesse added.

“You guys are reading way too much into this.  And wait Vince?”  He didn’t know much about the guy but what interactions he had had, hadn’t been pleasant.

“Vince asked Mia out?”  Brian had to know the rest of this story.

“Well yeah, are you blind?” Leon laughed. “Vince and Dom have been mates for years, since they bunked together at the academy. Vince has always had a thing for Mia and Dom turned a blind eye to it because he figured Vince was an okay guy.”

Jesse grinned and took over. “So once she joined the house properly Vince started courting her in his stupidly caveman way and Mia kept brushing him off, it got to the point where Mia had to slap him and tell him to what was it again?”

Leon laughed. “Fuck off you great brute, I’ve tried being nice but I realize your thick skull will never understand unless I’m blunt. I don’t like you. Back the fuck up.”

Brian snorted he could imagine her saying that exact thing.

“Well good for her.”  He chuckled.

“And that was just it?  They all went back to being friends?”  Brian asked as they finished their equipment checks.

Leon laughed. “Mia tolerates Vince at best, it's obvious she can’t stand being around him, but she does for Dom’s sake.”

“Are you talking about me behind my back again?” Dom asked, entering the truck bay, washing equipment in his hands.

“Never boss.” Jesse grinned cheekily and went back to his checks.

“Good.” Dom nodded. “The bathrooms need a bit of a clean, can you scrub down the showers?” He told the three of them, but he was looking at Brian, waiting for a challenge.

The siren went off.

“Grass fire, parkland with structures adjacent Team Two code Three.” Control called over the PA.

“It can wait, let’s go.”

***

They had the fire under control a few hours later and headed back to the station at lunchtime.  Everyone filed into the house, and straightened the equipment and then hit the showers.

Mia caught Brian as he was making his way back to the rec room after cleaning up.

“Hey, we still on for lunch?” She asked.

“Oh yeah sure.  You driving?”  He asked her.

Mia grinned. “Of course.” She agreed and and hooked her arm around his, leading him out of the fire house and to her car.

“You’re lucky to have me as your friend.” She told him with a grin. “I just saved you a world of pain.”

“Oh really?”  Brian asked as he got in the passenger side of the car.

“What were they planning?”  He asked knowing that the new guy always got pranked.

“You notice how Dom changed the menu board to Chili today?” She asked him with a wicked grin.

“Oh god.  Well thank you kind lady from saving me from the horror.”  He teased.

Mia snorted a laugh, pulling into traffic and heading to the diner just down from the fire house, this was her usual lunch spot when Vince or Jesse were cooking, poor boys can’t cook to save their lives.

Once inside Mia ordered her usual as Brian looked over the menu.

“They do great burgers here.” She smiled.

“Yeah my friends and I used to hang out here when I was a kid, we’d come here and then go to the arcade down the street.  I haven’t been back here in forever.” He told her and then ordered his favorite a burger with onions and tomato.

“So, is Dom going to be pissed that I didn’t end up falling for his little trick?” He asked her.  

“Probably, they’re most likely plotting the next prank. It’ll be alright though, I’ll give Dom a kick up the ass if he plans anything too nasty. Sometimes the pranks can be good team building exercises.” She winked.

When the food arrived, Mia bit into her burger and let out a small noise of appreciation.

She blushed when she realized what it must have sounded like.

“So, ice cream and then lunch, we’re seeing a bit of each other.” She said, hoping to get some clarification about what they were doing. She really liked Brian and she hoped he liked her too, it seemed like it from their interactions but she wanted to know for sure.

Brian chewed slowly, he’d known this was coming, he’d tried to be friendly without being too romantic, but he knew sometimes the two could be misconstrued, and he knew what everyone thought, he hoped he could let her down gently.

“We are.”  He agreed slowly and then took a sip of his lemonade.

“Mia I have to tell you something, and I hope you don’t take it the wrong way, or think I’ve been misleading you.  I value your friendship and I hope it’s something we can continue.”  He saw the look on her face and quickly continued.

“I’m gay.  I prefer men, but I really like you as a friend and I hope I haven’t just ruined that.”  He finished looking down at his plate.

Well that explained a lot. Mia thought to herself and let out a small sigh.

“Of course you are.” She nodded. “Figures.”

She continued to eat her burger, trying to think of something to say. It felt awkward now, Brian no doubt knew how she felt about him.

When the food was gone she folded her hands in her lap.

“Thanks for being kind about it.” She said eventually. “You could have been a jerk and made a big deal out of it but you didn’t, so thanks.”

“No problem?”  Brian tried.  He didn’t know how to react to her, he didn’t know where he stood with her now.  He shifted awkwardly in his seat.

“So...should we head back?  I can walk if you want.”  He didn’t want to make her feel even more awkward or force her to spend more time with him in an enclosed space if she didn’t want to.

 

Mia took a deep breath and put on a smile. “I’m not going to make your walk.” She promised.

Deciding she should take the blessing she’d been given Mia gave Brian a kind smile.

“Besides, if you walk how am I going to pester you about your preferences and be the annoying friend who insists on setting you up with all the eligible men she knows?” She teased.

“Oh god.”  Brian moaned.

“How will I ever survive.”  He groaned playfully happy that Mia hadn’t ditched him.

“And hey at least this way, we can ogle all the hot boys together.”  He winked.

Mia rolled her eyes. “Please have you seen that fire house? You’re the only thing remotely attractive it’s seen in years.” She told him.

“Unless there’s someone there you fancy?” She grinned at him.

“Who said they had to be at the firehouse.”  Brian deflected, there was no way he was going to admit to the fact that he may or may not have fantasized about a certain lieutenant’s buff arms.

Mia snorted. “Please you’re not as subtle as you think you are.” She told him. “But we should head back, if we get a call I want to be in the house.”

***

Dom spent the next few days of their rotation trying to plan another prank on the Probie. He’d been fitting in well and his attitude hadn’t caused issues on a call out so far, which was all Dom asked for.

They’d just been called to a car accident, two car incident with multiple trapped victims. Dom had split the team into rescue and control, Control was covering the engines with a foam to prevent a spark up as a precaution while the rescue focused on getting the people out.

“Probie, I want you on rescue, this is a good chance to learn, Mia you’re in command once were into the cars, I don’t want anyone touching or moving a single hair on those people’s heads until Mia gives you the all clear to do so. This is people’s lives were handling today people, kid gloves on we treat them with care.”

Mia nodded and had her pack ready to go as soon as they managed to remove the crumpled in door trapping the mother and her teenage daughter.

The mother was awake but the daughter was unconscious which is why they were cutting her out first. Mia had triaged the Mother as stable with a broken leg, the daughter was an unknown.

“Probie, I need the can opener.” Dom called, asking for a tool known as the jaws of life.

Brian ran back to the truck and grabbed the tool before hurrying back to where the lieutenant was waiting, he handed it to the big man and stood back as he worked, moving where he was told.

Dom and Leon took the large tool from Brian and got to work ripping the twisted pieces of metal from one another. They managed to claw a hole big enough for Mia to get to the girl.

“She’s stable, but I can’t assess her properly. Let me put a brace on her and then we can move her out carefully.” The brunette called out, accepting the brace from Hobbs and checking over what she could.

“Alright, I’m going to climb into the back seat and hold her head steady while we swing her legs out and ease the board under her legs and rump, then I want Hobbs to slide her down while I keep supporting, got it?”

The team agreed and got to work.

Brian hung back, trying to stay out of the way until he was needed.  He stood somewhat awkwardly by the front of the car until he noticed the mother’s hands shaking on the steering wheel.

“Hey.”  He crouched by the window.

“Hey, you’re gonna be fine you know.  So is she.”  The woman looked at him,  but didn’t say anything.

“This is my first week on the job, and I can tell you, that these guys are awesome.  I’ve seen them do some amazing stuff.  So don’t you worry.  You’re both gonna be fine.  We’ll have you out of here in no time.”  He smiled kindly, and she smiled weakly back. She looked a little pale, so Brian looked her over, there was a dark patch blooming on her side, she must have been hit with some of the shattered glass from the window.

“Guys!  Hey guys!”  He called to the team in the back seat, trying to stay calm and not alarm the woman.

“I’ve got a leak here.”  He told them.

Mia had just finished securing the girl to the board. “What?” Her head spun to face Brian.

“Hobbs get the girl to the bus, I’ll check this out.” She told him and moved around the car to the woman.

“Ma’am, why didn’t you tell me this before?” She asked, already knowing the answer, the woman would have gladly died to save her daughter.

Mia felt around the wound, it was much worse than she thought.

“Shit.” she muttered to herself.

“Dom! I need this woman out of here five minutes ago, forget finesse get her out now!”

Dom sprung into action, he and Vince working the jaws of life this time, this side of the car was easier to open.

“Hobbs we need her in our bus now.”

“On it, team three’s got the girl, we’ll take the mother. Hi there love, I’m going to put this on your face to help you breathe and we’re going to get you out of here and back with your daughter.” He told the woman.

They had her on the cart in just under a minute and Mia had Hobbs hold pressure since he was stronger and climbed into the front, sirens and lights on full towards the hospital.

Dom wiped the sweat from his brow and put a hand on Brian’s shoulder.

“Good find.” He said, voice neutral and then moved on as if the moment had never happened.

Brian blinked after Dom.  Had he really just told him good job?  He’d actually done something right in the man’s eyes.  He shook it off, storing the memory away for thought at a later time.

They made sure both cars were completely covered and in no danger of flaring up and waited until the tow trucks arrived to haul them away and clean up the scene before heading back to the firehouse.

Brian was quick to help make sure everything was stowed properly and organized before heading into the rec room with a big smile on his face.  He’d done a good job, he’d saved a woman’s life and earned some tacit approval from the lieutenant.  It was a good day.

His happy mood was squashed when as soon as he sat down on the couch said lieutenant appeared carrying the bucket of cleaning supplies.

“Night shift had a big night last night and didn’t have time to scrub down the showers.” He called out with a grin.

“So as a team bonding exercise, everyone can get it done together and get it done quick.” Captain Tanner smiled clapping a hand on Dom’s shoulder.

Dom knew better than to question his captain.

“Sir.” He nodded, clearly unimpressed.

“It’s cool Dom, we can all take turns pestering the Probie with 20 questions.” Letty smirked, heading to the showers.

Brian thought he might have been better off cleaning the showers by himself, but he went with it.  He was even nice enough to take the bucket from Dom’s hand and start in the first shower.

“Alright guys.  Lay em on me.”  Brian said as he scrubbed.

“Wow buster, didn’t know you were that easy.” Letty snorted a laugh.

“Brian! I thought you were a gentleman!” Leon snickered.

“Would it be overly sexual if I said me first?” Jesse teased.

“Guys!” Dom called warningly, scrubbing the shower next to Brian’s, he could see the man’s hands and knees as he worked.

“So Brian, other than surfing, what else do you do in your free time?” Jesse asked.

“Other than Mia?” Leon added in a low voice that still carried in the bathroom.

“Oi!” Dom warned again. This was going to end badly.

“Wow guys, come up with all of those on your own did you?”  Brian deadpanned.

“I sleep, so that I have the patience to come in a deal with fantastic quips like the ones you just came up with.”  Brian answered.

“That can’t be all you do?” Letty asked him. “I mean, when we get Sundays off we go to the Saturday night races, Dom usually wins us a few extra bucks on the side.” She chuckled.

“I paint.” Leon offered.

“I design engines and tools for rescue gear.” Jesse added.

“And Vince plays with dolls, but that’s a whole new story.” Letty teased.

The group laughed.

“I’ll tell you what I actually do if someone tells me the doll story.”  Brian answered he didn’t spill his secrets that easily.

“They’re not dolls little girls play with.” Leon said easily.

“I told you, they were given to me as a joke birthday gift from my brother!” Vince shot back.

“Of course they were.” Letty nodded patronisingly.

Dom couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Alright, enough shit stirring, more cleaning you lot.” He told them.

“Now Probie, spill.”

“Hey now, don’t be so hard on Vince.  We’ve all gotta get some lovin’ somewhere.  Right buddy.”  He teased the older man who scowled at him.

“If you really must know I dance.  Or well I used to.”  He answered.

“Dance?” Letty dead panned.

“Like ballroom dancing?” Leon frowned.

“I don’t see it, he’s got grace but he’s not that graceful.”

“That rules out ballet.”

“What kind of dancing Bri?” Jesse asked.

Dom rolled his eyes and kept cleaning, he really didn’t need this distraction, if everyone just got to work instead of playing this game then they’d be done quicker. Although it was fun to hear everyone have a good time and get to know the Probie. He’d make a good addition to the team if he kept up the good work, as much as Dom hated to admit it.

Brian blushed slightly.

“Um there was a pole, and um….I may or may not have been fully clothed.”  Brian answered.  He hadn’t been a stripper, exactly, but he hadn’t been wearing much at the time either.

“Shut the front door.” Letty gawked dropping her scrubbing brush.

“Oh hell no.” Leon had a grin on his face a mile wide.

“I’m so confused.” Jesse said, looking between the two with a frown.

Dom tensed. Did Brian just say he used to be a stripper?

“You used to pole dance?” Letty asked, trying to hold back the full belly laughter she knew was coming.

“Oh my god that’s precious I’m going to die!” She giggled and then burst out laughing with Leon and Jesse.

“Did you wear a fire helmet and swing your hose around?” Leon snorted bent over double from the power of his laughter.

Mia, fresh from the hospital chose that moment to enter the room.

“What’s so funny?” She asked.

Letty and Leon were leaning on each other for support they were laughing so hard.

“Brian use to be a pole dancer and wear a fire helmet and swing his hose around.” Jesse parroted for her.

Mia’s eyes went wide and moved to look at him.

“Are you serious?” She could feel the laughter coming too, that was just too precious.

“Will you all shut up about it. So he used to dance, big deal. Hurry up and get this clean before we have another call out and have to start all over again when we get back!” Dom barked orders.

He wasn’t about to admit he was curious, He hadn’t seen Brian in anything more tight fitting than one of the fire house ‘Probie’ shirts and they didn’t show off much.

He wondered if Brian made a bit of money doing it before he realized he was picturing Brian working a pole and shook his head, disgusted with himself.

Brian returned to scrubbing letting the laughter die out.

“For everyone’s general information.  No I never wore a fire helmet, but I’ve been told I make a pretty decent cowboy.”  He grinned slyly and chuckled to himself at the reactions as he calmly went back to scrubbing.  They had the showers clean pretty quickly after that, the conversation returning to less uproarious subjects.

***

It was only a matter of hours before the rest of the house knew about Brian’s past life as a pole boy. The days following drove Dom mad as he over heard all the women talk about it and all the guys talking shit behind Brian’s back for it.

He didn’t see the big deal. It happened it’s done, end of story.

The change of rotation came and went signalling the end of Brian’s first two weeks on the squad.

He’d done well and Dom was slightly impressed, but not really.

He and Mia spent 36 hours together, having Toretto Time™ and catching up since they only got to talk at work and mostly one was going to a call while the other was prepping or vice versa.

Coming back to the graveyard shift sucked. Dom loved the sunshine and he never got to see it on graveyard.

It was close to three am. Letty and Leon were curled up on the couch napping, they should have just gone to the bunkhouse and slept in their bunks, idiots.

Vince was in his bunk and Jesse was using his ipad to draw schematics for one of his crazy new inventions.

Dom was filling out progress reports and team evaluations when the siren sounded.

“Structure fire, Garage. District 1328, Team two auxiliary needed for blackout support.” Control said.

Dom sighed.

Brian closed his laptop and followed Dom out to the truck bay.

“What exactly does that mean?”  He asked the lieutenant as they geared up.

“It means, another district just put out the fire, but because of how long it took they can’t stay on site, so we get brought in as auxiliary to finish up.”

Dom grabbed one of the radios. “1327 Control this is Lieutenant Toretto, how many members of team two needed for 1328 structure fire garage?”

“Lieutenant Toretto this is Control, two members of team two required for structure fire garage in district 1328.”

“Roger that, count Lieutenant Toretto and Probationary member O’Conner as active and on route, eta 13 minutes. Over and out.”

“Roger that Lieutenant. Reported as active and on route. Code three approved. Over and out.”

Brian climbed into the truck beside the big man and watched as he flipped on the lights and pulled out into traffic, this was the first time he’d ever been called out without the whole team going.  He was slightly nervous to be alone with Dom.  The Lieutenant hadn’t been as overtly hostile to him lately but he could still feel the disapproval and dislike from him.   He was a little leery of how this was going to go without the buffer of the rest of the team.

They pulled up to the building and thick black smoke hung in the air.

“I thought the fire was out.”  He asked Dom, turning to him for his orders.

“Shit.” Dom muttered.

He exited the truck and found the Lieutenant of 1328.

“I thought this was blackout?” He asked shaking the man’s hand.

“It is, the building wasn’t on fire as we thought, just the pile of tires around the back, probably kids.” He sighed.

“Fuck.” Dom groaned.

“Sorry man, my boys have been here almost 8 hours, they need a break.”

“Yeah, no sweat. Just remember this next time I call in a favour huh?” Dom teased.

The Lieutenant nodded and Dom called Brian over.

“It’s rubber tires, we’ll have to cover them with water till the flames die and then foam to smother the rest, we’re gonna get filthy and the air is going to be rubber particles, keep your helmet on at all times and if you have a clean rag, wrap it around your nose and mouth, you don’t want to breath this in.”

Brian nodded and did as Dom instructed tying a rag around his face and then helping the older man with the hoses.

8 hours is an awfully long time he thought to himself until he walked around the back with Dom and actually saw what they were dealing with, the pile of tires was more like a mountain with flames licking at the base and coming up from the middle.

"Wow." Was the only thing he could think of to say. This was gonna suck.

“Yeah. Welcome to the graveyard shift.” Dom sighed and got to work hosing water to the bottom of the pile where the flames were biggest.

“Aim for the bottom, we’ll get the flames out of the way and then foam it all.” He told the blonde his plan.

It took almost two hours to demolish the flames and a further hour to coat the whole thing in foam.

When it was done 1328’s team three were just arriving.

“We’ll take it from here, we’ll keep the foam going for an hour or so just in case.”

Dom nodded and shook the guys hand, wincing at the flecked melted rubber he left on the guys hand.

“No worries.” The man shrugged.

Dom and Brian made their way back to the truck and Dom was glad to remove the rag and breathe in fresh air.

“Fuck.” He panted softly removing his helmet.

“Congratulation on surviving your first graveyard blackout.” He told Brian, feeling somewhat generous after those grueling hours.

“Lets get back and shower, it’ll be harder to get the rubber off of your skin when it sets completely.”

Brian was exhausted after that he felt like he was never going to be clean again.

"I'm thinking about leaving it, ya know as a fashion statement or something. Maybe it'll be good sunscreen." He teased.

Dom had actually been somewhat nice to him while they'd worked. It hadn't been nearly as bad as he'd thought.

Dom snorted a laugh, climbing into the truck and starting it up.

“Trust me, not a good idea.” He promised and steered them back towards the house.

Letty and Leon were still curled up on the couch, Jesse lifted his head to give them a small small and went back to his schematics and Vince was still sleeping.

Mia and Hobbs were still on a call out from earlier that night and Dom had half a mind to page her.

He checked the control feed on the screen outside Tanner’s office, it was a running commentary of all calls for their district and house.

Their return to base was the last noted entry.

“Alright, shower time.”

The way the showers were designed they were split into men and women but with a dividing wall.

On the women's side, 6 shower heads lined the wall and drains below, the men's side echoed this.

Dom took his usual shower head in the corner, turning it on hot and stripping off, not caring that Brian was in the room. They were men and they’d all seen it before.

Brian had never been shy about his body. Even before he'd been a stripper and after that well... He knew he was fit and he took pride in it.  

He didn't usually make a habit of checking out the guys in a communal shower. Things like that got your ass kicked quickly and usually there wasn't much to look at.

This time he didn't know what came over him, Dom had reached the shower before him and was already under the spray washing his head and Brian couldn't help but stop for a moment and watch. The muscles moving in his back, cords of hard sinew wrapping his arms as they scrubbed the melted rubber from his skin. His eyes wandered lower and damn.

Brian had to shake himself out of it before he really ruined the situation for himself with an unfortunately timed erection.

He turned on the shower at the other end from Dom and started washing his hair eyes firmly closed, to avoid getting shampoo in them.

Dom heard Brian pause, his instincts screamed at him to yell at the blonde, but he told himself the guy was just looking for his own body wash or something, he wasn’t checking Dom out. There was locker room etiquette to follow and Brian hadn’t broken it yet.

Curiously though Dom wondered what the blonde did look like under all his gear. He’d been a dancer, a pole dancer no less and Dom knew it took ultimate amounts of core strength.

He wondered if the women enjoyed watching him because of his charisma or his body.

Dom turned to wash the soap from his back and snuck a quick glance at Brian who was facing the wall, hands braced in front of him on either side of the shower head, his head bowed as the water cascaded down over him.

Brian wasn’t big, wasn’t built the way Dom was, but his muscles were sleek and well defined, his back was strong and his abs, while not washboard and defined as most men, they were clearly outlined and firm.

It was Brian’s ass that caught his attention though, firm, perky, perfectly rounded. In all honesty it looked like an ass that could belong to a perfectly proportioned woman and Dom started wondering what it would look like if he slapped it, would the muscle bounce back and a soft pink handprint take shape.

Dom felt his cock twitch and he quickly turned his back to the blonde again, cursing himself.

What the fuck was he thinking? Brian might have had the ass of a woman, but he was male, very much so and probably dating his sister.

Dom grabbed his body soap again and started scrubbing for the second time. stupid fucking rubber.

Brian leaned against the wall, told himself to get it together.

He'd caught a glimpse of Dom’s defined abs and chest when he'd turned to reach for his body wash and he'd nearly lost it then and there. Fuck he wanted. He wanted to know what those muscles would feel like pressed against him.  

He wanted to know how those arms catching his wrists and pinning them to a bed would feel. He'd kept his eyes firmly above the waist, some lines even he wouldn't cross but he could imagine how well proportioned Dom would be everywhere and fuck Brian took deep breaths to calm down.

Dom was straight very very straight. Brian would have to accept that and take some time on his next day off to find a muscled hunk to fuck him into next week and hopefully make him forget all about his lieutenant.

When Dom had his body back under control he turned off the water and firmly stared only at himself as he dried off and got dressed.

He entered the rec room again, moving to the kitchen to check in the fridge for something light to eat, he felt drained after the call out and he needed something to keep his blood sugar up.

His thoughts about Brian scared him a little but Dom wasn’t a coward. He’d do some research, it was probably normal, he hadn’t slept with someone in a while, maybe next RDO he would go out, find a nice girl who liked it rough and screw his frustrations into her all night.

Brian was starving as he finished his shower and made a beeline for the kitchen.

"What have we got?" He asked Dom who already had a plate of something.

“Leftover chicken n dumplings, Mia cooked them so they’re safe.” Dom gave Brian a sly grin.

Since starting Brian had lucked out with the Chili prank but he fell for the cupcakes made with salt not sugar and the spoilt milk in his coffee.

They’d started winding down on the pranks for now, trying to lull Brian into a false sense of security before moving onto other kinds of pranks, the way it usually went was food, personal belongings, activities and finally personal. Dom always made sure the pranks never went too far, but he knew he’d be able to push and get away with more from Brian.

“Let’s go eat in the truck bay, don’t wanna wake them up.” He nodded to Letty and Leon.

Brian grinned when Dom mentioned Mia's cooking she was easily the best cook in the house.

He made a plate and joined Dom out in the bay when it was hot.

"I don't know why they didn't just go to their bunks. They aren't fooling anybody." Brian said. Letty and Leon had a thing/not-thing going on that everyone knew about.

“Because they’re idiots who chose to sleep on the couch and I’ll remind them of that when they bitch to me about sore backs or necks.” Dom told him and savoured his food.

“You did good tonight. Not many people would put up with a tire fire and not bitch for the duration.”

Brian blushed slightly at the praise. It was literally the first time he'd been told he did a good job by Dom. That he'd succeeded and done something right.

"Well I thought about it. But then I decided I like it better when you're not pissed off at me. So I kept it to myself." Brian grinned taking a bit of the food and moaning shamelessly at how good it tasted. Mia's cooking was seriously the best.

And just like that Dom’s defences were back. The noise Brian made went to his cock and Dom hated his traitorous body.

“You should get some sleep. I’m going to get started cleaning my gear, yours will need to be done before next shift. Understood?” He told the blonde, standing up and moving over to the clothes hooks holding up Dom’s jacket, pants and boots, his helmet was on a shelf just above.

Brian blinked in confusion. What the hell was that about. He almost wanted to go over and start cleaning his gear just to piss the guy off but Dom obviously didn't want Brian around anymore and he decided not push his luck instead heading inside to his bunk and falling almost instantly asleep.

Dom sighed heavily when Brian left the room. Thankful the man was gone before Dom’s stupid traitorous body could do more harm than good.

He worked diligently through the shift, glad no more incidents were reported or called out to.

**  
After their fifth day of the graveyard shift they were given a day off for their ‘weekend’ and Dom decided a woman was what he needed.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have enabled anon commenting again for this story as I understand a loft of you don't have an AO3 account.   
> Alternatively you can come over to misspsychoticfics.tumblr.com and leave us a message :)


	3. Chapter 3

“Morning boss, you look a bit worse for wear.” Letty teased.

“Don’t.” Dom warned. He’d spent his day off chatting to one of the women he used to see on a casual basis, she had apparently grown out of him and he left that lunch date as sexually frustrated as he’d gone in. He’d had a spectacular wank session by himself in the safety of his own bedroom but it had gone awkward as he lay there, panting, eyes closed and come cooling, realizing the woman in his mind had had blonde hair and blue eyes and angular shoulders and a strong back while his imaginary self fucked her from behind.

She had almost looked like. He stopped himself again.

Stupid Brian.

Dom hated feeling like this, he had no idea what was going on but he knew one thing for sure, this was all Brian’s fault.

***

Brian stared at himself in the mirror. There was no way he was going to be able to cover it up.

He'd had his ‘weekend’ break between shift change and he'd gone out dancing the night before.

He'd found a guy, a nice muscled guy and they'd danced and grinded, it had been nice and Brian was now covered in beard burn on his neck and collarbones.  He may even have had a slight hickey from where the guy he'd been grinding on had bit down.  He'd thought about bringing the guy home but hadn't been able to bring himself to. Instead he'd spent the night with some new toys and a spectacular vision of strong hands and arms.

The fact remained though that he was about to out himself to the whole house.

Oh well, he shrugged. Time to face the music.

He got out of his car grabbed his bag and headed inside.

***

The whistling made Dom look up from his newspaper.

Brian was blushing and trying to hide his neck that was very clearly red and raw.

Something tightened in his gut and Dom hated how it felt, hated what Brian made him feel.

“O’Conner, what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” He growled lowly.

“Did you not read the handbook on Probationary members grooming standards?” He asked, voice low. “Either borrow makeup from Mia or Letty and cover that shit up or go home until it heals. You’re representing the fire house of district 1327, not a college fraternity. I expect better from you in future.” He glared and exited the room, heading to Tanner's office to report in and write up Brian’s official first warning.

Brian stared after Dom. What the fuck? What the hell was his problem?  Brian had read the handbook and Brian wasn't sporting any visible tattoos or piercings and while his marks were visible they weren't as bad as the lieutenant was making them out to be so where the fuck did he get off bitching him out like that. Brian turned to Mia.

"Have you got some foundation I can borrow because your brother is an asshole?" He asked.

Mia gave him a kind smile and a soft chuckle.

"Rough night huh?" she asked, leading him back to the locker room, sitting him down and pulling out her supplies.

"What is it with you and my brother and pissing each other off?" she asked him as she worked.

"I did literally nothing other than show up to work this morning. He bitched at me for not adhering to the probie code of appearance and then stalked off so I have no idea what his problem is." Brian ranted tilting his head so she could put the cover up on him.

"I can do this myself you know. I used to do my stage makeup." He told her

"Well aren't you special." Mia teased, continuing with the make up.

"I think Dom had a rough weekend. He came back more tense and exhausted than he went into it. But the probie handbook does say to be clean shaven and free from socially inappropriate markings." she parroted. "That doesn't just mean tattoos dear. Letty has two warnings for it and Leon's got one the idiots."

"Well I'm sorry his weekend sucked but that doesn't give him....you know what. Whatever." He sighed.

"Thanks for the makeup." He told her as she finished.

"How was your weekend?"

Mia turned a lovely shade of pink.

"It was good." she told him, very distractedly.

"but why don't you tell me about yours. I want all the sexy details." she grinned turning the conversation around.

"There are no sexy details. I went out dancing. My partner had a lovely scruff going on. Then I went home and amused myself for awhile." He finished with a smirk.

"Now tell me what has you blushing." He prodded.

Mia shifted uncomfortably.

"If I said I wasn't comfortable talking about it would you drop the subject?" she asked him nervously.

"Of course." Brian answered kindly.

"But know you could always talk to me about anything, I mean that." He told her taking her hand.  If he thought she was just being coy he would have cajoled her into spilling but she seemed genuinely uncomfortable so he let it drop.

Mia gave him a thankful smile.

"Thanks, It's not that I dont-" the siren went off.

"Fully involved Structure- team two, team three code 1." said control.

Dom's voice echoed through the halls.

"We got a big one! Move people!"

"Shit." Mia was up and out in a second.

Brian followed, hurrying into his gear and climbing into the truck listening for Dom's orders. He was going to do absolutely everything to the letter, he'd been written up twice by the lieutenant and he didn't want to repeat it.

Letty was driving again leaving Dom free to radio in and receive further information from control.

"Alright, here's the deal, we have a single story structure that's fully involved, Intel says there's two people inside, Jesse and Leon you're on BA, I'll act as control for that, the rest of you I want on those hoses, controlled spray through the windows to the base."

The team all called their affirmative.

Brian jumped out of the truck when they reached the scene hurrying over with Vince to get the hoses hooked up. Vince took one side and directed him around the other. He covered his side aiming for the base of the flames he could see and hoping Leon and Jesse were making progress getting the two victims out.

"Dom," came the crackling voice over everyone's radios.

"Yeah Jesse, I'm here, what do you need?"

“This place has a basement."

"Shit. Anyone fall through?"

"One of the victims. I got the other here but he's knocked out and Leon and I can't carry him. We need a third flyweight."

"Alright, hang tight, I'm sending you O'Connor. You let me know the second something changes." He ordered.

"O'Connor!" Dom boomed.

Brian heard his name and rushed over.

"Yes lieutenant?"

"Suit up your going in. There's a basement. We need a flyweight to help carry our unconscious victim. Stick to floor that has a support beam under it. No heroics. Just get the three of them out safe."

Brian nodded and got his gear on and checked in with Dom before he headed in.  He moved slowly the first floor pretty badly engulfed as he moved toward where Leon was standing at a door that lead to a basement. He gave a hand signal for Brian to head down.

"Jesse's down there. Has the victim but needs a hand carrying him up."

"You got it." Brian told him and made his way carefully down the stairs.

He could see the ceiling wasn't going to hold up much longer. Chunks were falling out.

"Jesse!" He called out he couldn't see the man through the smoke. He could see some flames along one of the walls curling up toward the ceiling.

"Over here." Brian turned to the younger man. The victim was a middle aged man trapped under a beam that had fallen.

"We need to get this off." He told Brian.

"Yeah OK." He came and took an end.

"On three lift. One...two...three." They heaved the beam off of the man and tossed it to the side.

"Alright let's grab him and get out of here."

They heard their radios crackle with a warning from Dom that the structure was unsafe and they needed to get out. Now.

“Do you hear me? All three of you out now!” Dom repeated again.

“Fuck this.” He muttered, ready to gear up.

“The floor won’t hold you.” Letty reminded him.

“Shit.” Dom growled.

“God this guy’s heavy!” Leon groaned as they managed to clear the stairs and begin the dangerous path across the collapsing floor, the roof of the basement.

“Keep moving.” Jesse reminded them. Halfway the floor made uncomfortable noises.

“Move, now.” Leon ordered Brian speeding up.

“Wait up, I can’t walk that quick!” Jesse panicked, missed his footing and stomped onto the wrong spot the floor gave way and Jesse went down, clinging to the support beam.

“Brian!” He screamed.

“No! Rescue handbook, one first before the other, get this heavy ass to Mia then we come back for Jesse.”

“Don’t leave me!” Jesse wailed.

“Move O’Conner!” Leon snapped, pulling the dead weight towards the door, they could drop the guy half out so Dom and Vince could pull him the rest while they got Jesse.

Brian looked between Jesse and Leon. He didn't want to leave his friend. This place was coming down fast. They were barely going to have time to get the victim out as it was. They probably wouldn't have time to come back for Jesse. But he couldn't leave Leon alone with the victim he was too heavy to carry and he could risk trapping them all.

"Don't hate me Jesse we’ll be right back hang on. You can do it. We’ll be right back I promise." He told the younger man before turning to Leon.

"Let's do this." He heaved part of the weight off of Leon and they moved toward the exit.

“Where the hell is Jesse?” Dom growled as Leon and Brian half dropped the unconscious man and ran back in the house.

“Hey! Hey!” He shouted after them.

Dom tried to see through the smoke but he didn’t have his BA on.

“Vince, help me get this guy to Mia.” He called, picking up the guy’s legs. Vince nodded and grabbed under his armpits.

"Jesse!" Brian yelled after they'd dropped the man for Dom to take care of.

"Jesse! Were coming man."

"Help! I can't hold on." Jesse was trying desperately to hold on to the supports of the first floor as it collapsed around him. A beam came slamming to the ground just to the right of where Leon and Brian were picking their way carefully across the floor to Jesse.

Dom came across the radio demanding a report and Leon responded that they were trying to rescue Jesse.

Brian reached him first and grabbed his arm.

"I got you man. Don't let go we got you." Leon joined him and together they heaved the young firefighter onto the floor.

"Thanks guys." Jesse told them relieved.

"Hey no problem Jes, now lets get out of here." Leon told him reaching a hand down to help him up.  They turned to the front door as a giant cracking groan filled the air and a huge part of the roof fell out blocking their escape.

Brian looked to Leon.

"There's gotta be another way out. Is there a back door?" He asked as Leon radioed their predicament to Dom.

“We’ve got three of our own trapped inside!” Dom shouted to the teams.

“I want someone on that back door ready to get them out, Ladder, you think the front door is wide enough to breach if they can’t make it?”

“It could work, all they’d have to do is sit single file along the length of the ladder and we can back up with them riding it.” Letty offered.

“Let’s do that, make it happen.” He ordered moving to the front door to gel guide her.

“Leon, Jesse, Brian. Listen up, find a strong supported bit of floor and wait, we’ve got the ladder coming through the door, you’re all gonna get on it single file and climb towards the truck, we’ll be pulling you out as you climb so you’ll be out double quick. Do you copy?”

“Copy that boss.” Leon’s voice came through. “Just make it quick yeah?”

“We’re on it.” Dom told the radio and tuned to Letty. “Keep it coming Letty, inch to the right!”

The end of the ladder made it through the door and Letty extended the end inside.

“Can you guys see the ladder?”

“We got it boss, Jesse on Ladder.” Leon confirmed. “I’m on now, O’Conner looks like he’s…. okay good. All three on and climbing get us out of here boss.”

“Back it up Letty, nice and easy."

Brian had never been happier to see a ladder in his life. He knew as soon as they'd started looking toward the back door there was no way they were going to make it. They got onto the ladder and crawled forward as it pulled them out.

"Buildings clear boss." Leon told Dom as he came over to check on them

“I need you three separated and checked out by Hobbs and Mia. None of you talk to each other, I expect separate incident reports on my desk by end of shift.” He told them, which was Lieutenant Toretto speak for “Thank God you’re okay, don’t fucking scare me like that again!”

Dom put a hand on Jesse’s shoulder and gently steered him to Mia while Leon saw Hobbs. “Whichever becomes free first go to them. Good Job O’Conner.” He spoke lowly, and then continued to battle the flames with Vince and Letty.

Brian beamed. He'd survived, saved his friend’s, life saved a guy, and Dom had told him he'd done a good job it was a good day.

He got his gear off and milled around until Mia called him over.

"Hey. How's it going.?" He asked cheekily.

“Don’t even!” She warned him, sitting him down and beginning to check his head, listening to his lungs and heart and poking and prodding for any tender spots or possible breaks or fractures.

“You guys scared the hell out of me, I almost cried you dick!” She told him, writing down his blood pressure results and temperature, handing him a bottle of water.

Brian chugged the water.

"I'm sorry." He told her slinging an arm around her in a one armed hug.

"We didn't mean to scare you, but we all made it out safe and sound. How was the guy. Did he make it okay?" He asked

“Yeah he’s gonna be okay, Team 3 EMT’s took him off already so we have to hold the scene. You guys are really lucky.” She told him, leaning her head on his shoulder.

“You could have all died in there.”

“That’s the risk, Mia, we all know it.” Dom told her coming over for a bottle of water.

“Is he cleared?”

“He’s fine.”

“O’Conner I need you to relieve Vince, radio if situation changes or you need back up.”

"Yes sir." He said and got up from where Mia had pushed him into a seat.  

"I'm here to relieve you, go get some water." He said to Vince taking the hose from him and covering through the window.

They had the fire put out a few hours later when the team from 1328 showed up to relieve them.

**  
  
**

“Good job guys.” Dom called, shaking the hand of the Lieutenant from 1328.

“On the truck, let's head home.”

During the drive back, Jesse, Leon and Brian were separated as they all had to fill in an incident report and keep it as unbiased as possible.

Back at the house everyone got to shower and eat before Brian, Leon and Jesse were set all spaced in the rec room to write their reports, Dom sat on the armchair, facing them all and keeping an eye as they wrote. He typed up his own on the laptop and submitted it to the Captain.

Mia and Hobbs got two more call outs during the shift and only returned 10 minutes before shift end.

“You okay?” He asked noticing how drained she looked.

Mia moved and sat on his lap, dropping her head to his shoulder.

“I need bed.” She groaned sadly.

“You want me to drive you home?”

“Best brother ever.” Mia sighed.

Dom laughed. “Alright, go get your stuff.”

Brian filed his incident report and waited for Jesse to finish his before asking to play some cards. They spent the rest of the shift playing cards and chatting Leon eventually joining them.

***

Things were scarily quiet for the next two shifts. One only having one call out and the second a false alarm and a medical call.

It was completely bizarre to have such a period of downtime but Dom spent it in the gym, working out and working through his frustrations.

Leon and Vince joined him while Jesse chatted as he jogged.

“So you know Mia and Brian are going to dinner tonight.” Leon commented off hand.

“I thought Probie was gay?” Vince snarled

“Maybe he likes both?” Jesse shrugged.

“Why are we talking about this?” Dom let out an exasperated sigh.

“Because it’s your sister he’s dating.” Leon added.

“They’re not dating, Mia would have told me.”

“You sure? I heard them talking at lunch, going out to the dinner tonight after shift.”

Dom rolled his eyes.

“Enough guys. Stop shit stirring.” He told them and headed to the showers, angrily brushing past Brian who was heading to the rec room, no doubt to see Mia.

Brian gave Dom a look as he shoved past him on his way to the shower but then shrugged it off.

"So what do you think about Mexican for dinner tonight?" He asked Mia plopping down on the couch next to her.

Mia frowned. “I thought we were going to the diner?” She asked confused but then shrugged.

“But yeah, I can do mexican. There’s this nice place over on broadway, Cha Cha Cha,” She told him with a small smile.

"I forgot about that. You're a doll. I have such a taste for tacos." He said with a grin and a small hug.

"I'm gonna go hit the bag in the gym now that the king of the mountain has vacated the premises." He said with a small smile.  

"I'll meet you out front in an hour?"

Mia snorted a laugh.

“Don’t let him hear you calling him that.” She warned. “See you in an hour.”

***

“Are you putting on makeup?” Dom watched as Mia searched through her bag for a certain shade of lipstick.

“I might be, what’s it to you?” she teased.

“Are you dating Brian?”

Mia snorted a laugh. “No darling brother, he doesn’t like women.” She confirmed.

“Oh.” Something shot through Dom’s stomach and that weird feeling he got around Brian came back ten fold.

“Oh? Oh what?” She asked.

“Nothing, I just thought you two were…”

“If you say fonduing I’m going to hit you.” She teased.

It was Dom’s turn to snort a laugh.

“Just look after yourself, and if you need me to kick his ass, you let me know.”

“Noted, now shoo, shift ended 6 minutes ago.” She teased and applied her lipstick before heading out the door to wait for Brian.

Brian had showered and endured endless ribbing from the rest of the team as he got dressed to take Mia out.  They weren't going on a date but he still wanted to look a little good for her.  She deserved it.

He held his arm out with a grin.

"Milady."  He gave an exaggerated bow.

Mia laughed and hit his arm.

"Dork." She accused fondly.

The drive was quick and uneventful as they had to take separate cars.

"Did you make a booking?" she asked him noticing how packed it was inside.

“What kind of date would I be if I hadn’t?”  He asked with a cheeky grin and led her inside, they were seated right away.

“See I’m good for some things.”  He told her looking over the menu.

"Oh yes, you're a real lady killer." She deadpanned back to him.

The restaurant was nice and not too loud. The food was great too.

"Okay,  spill it. I know that look it means one thing: guy problems. As your new best lady friend you are obligated to tell me all the details."

“Details.  What details?  That’s exactly the problem.  I have nothing to tell.”  Brian lamented.  He was glad Mia had come out with him.  She was great company and she didn’t mind him bitching about his problems.

"Okay start from the start and go from there. Who, what, when and where?"

Brian groaned.  There was no way he was going to tell Mia about his secret crush on her brother.  On her very straight brother who hated him.  He got creative.

“Who?  A guy, we’ll call him Steve.  What?  He’s fucking gorgeous and perfect and amazing and buff as fuck, and he’s straight and I think he hates me.  At the very least he barely notices I exist.”  

Brian took a sip of his margarita before continuing.

“When and where, since about a month ago and just out.  I’ve seen him around places, clubs etc.  I’m going to die Mia.  He’s too perfect.  It’s seriously unfair.”  He complained taking another drink.

Mia put a hand on his shoulder. "there there." she grinned Patting him.

"So Steve huh. We need a plan to check if he's straight. You'll never know until you get confirmation from him personally. Can you talk to him?"

“Um about his personal life not really.  And it’s not really even a question.  He’s straight.  Really straight.  Like find the straightest thing you could possibly imagine and double that.  Dude is a ruler.”  

Mia chuckled. “Sounds like he’s overcompensating on the macho. Dude is totally gay. Bet you he doesn’t even know it yet. All he needs is you to go over there and wow him with your dance moves and that ass in some tight ass jeans and he’s gonna have his gay crisis and you’ll be there to ease him through it.” She laughed a little too loudly.

Brian groaned.

“I wish.”  He sighed.

“But I don’t think that’s going to work. I like my face unpunched thanks.”

“Enough about my unrequited love though, are you ever going to tell me what’s had you blushing lately?”  He asked, trying to change the subject.

As if on cue Mia blushed again. “Not that it’s any of your business but I had a delivery the day before our time off.” She told him and really did not want to say anything further.

“But we should work on a plan. My plans are always flawless. I got Leon and Letty together didn’t I?” She grinned.

“What we need is a way to entice your man. What are some of the things he likes? Show some common interests, if you see him at the club, go and dance with him dammit.”

“A special secretive delivery huh?  Interesting….”  He teased.

“I know he likes cars?”  Brian replied unsure.  The truth was he had no idea what Dom did in his spare time, and anything he did learn was from Mia.

“And I can’t just walk up and dance with him.  Remember the whole unpunched face thing?  Yeah still trying to make that happen.  And what do you mean you got Leon and Letty together?”  

Mia rolled her eyes.

“Who do you think convinced Leon to get over himself, grow a pair and tell her how he felt? And who do you think convinced Letty that he was actually being genuine? Me. That’s who. I know they’re not like a fairy tail couple or anything but the fact they even know how the other feels is all my doing.” She smiled proudly.

“I like seeing my friends happy. If only I could work my magic for Dom, he’s just as bad as you. Too busy for a girlfriend, they’d need to understand his hours and the roster, they’d need to understand him being on call 24/7 since he’s the Lieutenant. It’s so hard to work with those conditions, he’d have to date a doctor or a nurse or someone else from the fire station and that’s just awful because he’d only see them like 2 days a fortnight or if they were on shift with him and that’s just not how you have a relationship.”

Brian sighed.  He understood completely.

“Yeah it does make it tough, and even if you’re dating someone at the house and you’re on shift with them it’s not like you get to spend any real quality time together.  Everyone is in each other’s pockets.  You’ve just got to find a way to make it work I suppose.  People do it.  My parents did.”  Brian pointed out.  

He left out the fact that his dad was never home, and his mom loved him more than anything in the world but they still never saw each other.  They found a way to make it work though and that was what mattered.

Mia nodded.

"Yeah, dad always said he never got to spend quality time with me and Dom since we started studying properly, then... Well it was just too late for any of it to matter. I think that's why Dom and I are so close now. First mom then dad. We're all we have left." she shrugged.

"But enough doom and gloom. I have a great idea. Next night off you me and Letty my place with some wine and lots of ice cream and we will bitch about men and the ones we can't have and all the hot ones. It'll be a real girls night," she teased playfully.

Brian laughed.

“Just because I like men doesn’t actually make me a girl you know.  So as soon as the nail polish and hairspray come out, I’m out.”  He teased.

They finished their drinks and Brian paid for dinner, like the gentleman he was.  He walked Mia to her car and bid her goodnight.

“Text me when you get home ok.”  He told her and headed to his own car.  He wanted to go home have a nice wank and go to sleep, all of this talk about his dream man had got him all on edge.

“I will. Drive safe." she told him and headed home.

She text Brian that she was home safe and sound as soon as she had the front door locked and then climbed into bed thinking about who Brian's mystery man could be.

***

Brian walked in to work the next day trying to pretend that he hadn’t just spent the night fucking himself with a toy pretending it was his lieutenant.  He tried not to blush when he saw the big man in his tight LAFD t-shirt that fit a little too well and showed off his arms in a way that was positively sinful.

“Morning Bri.  You look like you had a rough night.”  

Brian looked over at Jesse.

“Nah, just the opposite Jes.”  He winked.

Dom stiffened as he heard the comment.

"Don't need to hear it Probie." He told the man.

"The truck bay needs a good clean, can you sweep and mop again?" He made it sound like a question but it was an order.

Without waiting for a response Dom headed out to the truck bay himself. Pumper 2 was having issues with it's starting and Dom was rostered on for maintenance since he knew what he was doing with engines. This way he'd be able to keep an eye on Brian while he worked, made sure he didn't cut corners.

“You got it boss.”  Brian replied with a grin and a wink.

He got out the broom and started sweeping.  He was not staring at the way the muscles in Dom’s arm and shoulder moved as he worked the wrench.  He was not imagining what they would look like working on something else.

It did not take him an extra half hour to sweep the whole floor because he was not staring at the way Dom’s back flexed under his shirt as he bent over the engine.  

He did not have to stop and adjust himself surreptitiously in his pants because he was imagining what those muscles would look like if he were hunched over something else.

Dom spent the entire time it took Brian to sweep the floor half focusing on the engine and half focusing on Brian.

It was hard to concentrate when he knew what Brian looked like under his clothing and he could imagine the way his ass moved.

Brian swept properly, putting his back into it and rocking his hips as he went and Dom was slightly transfixed.

After his failed attempt at getting laid last weekend and the self pitying wank after he'd decided that fuck it he could be a mature person about this and see if other naked men gave Dom the same reaction as Brian did.

It was probably just because he hadn't been laid in a while but Dom just wanted to check it out.

The porn he found wasn't the best, but the guy getting fucked looked like he was enjoying it and he had a great ass. If Dom squinted it was almost like straight anal porn and it sent something alight in his gut.

He was hard again after a few minutes but when he tried to get off it wouldn't happen.

Eventually he pictured it as a woman instead and she ended up being blonde haired with blue eyes and a strong back and Dom was back to wanking over Brian.

Back at work was hard, knowing that Brian had apparently had a good night last night with someone, since Mia called him after their dinner to say she was home safe like she always did.

The larger Man groaned when he dropped the wrench, using it as an excuse to hide behind the truck and adjust himself, thinking unsexy thoughts and focusing on the engine.

This was all Brian's fault.

Brian heard the larger man groan and tried to pretend it didn’t go straight to his cock as he started mopping.

“You ok over there boss?”  He called.

"Fine." Dom called. "just hit my hand." He lied and stood up again, moving to bend over the engine, focusing on his task. Brian was cleaning the bit of floor right in his line of vision, if he looked up and the boy looked so good. It was easy to see now why people paid to watch him dance.

Brian mopped slowly but efficiently making sure not to miss any spot, while he did he gave up on attempting to hide and snuck looks at Dom as he worked.  God he wanted that man.  Wanted him to press him to a bed and do naughty things to him.  He wanted to push the big man down and do unspeakable things to those perfect abs and magnificently sculpted body.  Fuck.  He moaned, covering it as he lifted the sopping mop out of the bucket.  He couldn’t take this much longer.  He was going to have to find a solution to his fixation.

Dom had never been so keenly aware of another person's presence within a room before. He thought he could feel the tension between them, but that was ridiculous. Just because he was gay didn't mean Brian was attracted to him. What a stupid assumption to make.

"Gentlemen," Hobbs smiled completely ignorant to the tension.

“Hey-” Dom’s voice cracked, he cleared his throat and tried again .”Hey Hobbs.”

“You good Boss?”

“Yeah, just working on the starter.”

Hobbs nodded and looked down at the floor.

“Good job, Probie. I haven’t been able to see myself in the floor since Jesse was a Probie,” He teased and headed on into the house.

Brian decided he couldn't take it anymore. He finished the rest of the floor quickly and headed inside. He needed to work his frustrations out.

He went to the gym to beat on the heavy bag for awhile. Hobbs was in there lifting weights.

"Hey Probie. Everything alright?" The man asked as Brian taped his hands and started his normal workout.

"Yeah man. Why?" He punched the bag right in its stupid perfect face.

"Nothing you just got the look of someone who's got a lot on their mind. Boy troubles?" The big man kidded.

Brian hit the bag harder. Right in its perfectly sculpted abs.

"Ugh I don't really."

"Tell Uncle Hobbs all about it." The paramedic told him kindly. Continuing his own workout. Brian could see him smiling in the mirror.

"It's nothing Hobbs just a case  of wanting what you can't have." Brian sighed punching the bag in its perfect strong back.

Hobbs nodded sympathetically.

"Yeah. That's tough. But why can't you have him? Go get yo man."

"Its not that easy Hobbs. I wish it was." Brian sighed.

"It’s always easy, people make things more complicated than they need to be. Just go tell him you want him. Or go shake that ass at him. Don't write me up for harassment or anything, but I don't know how he could resist it. It's a pretty fine ass if I do say so myself." Hobbs joked.

Brian laughed. He knew he big man was messing around. Hobbs had a partner and the two of them were the most doting and sweet couple he'd ever seen in his life.

"Thanks man. I don't think he'll fall for the charms of my fine ass though. I don't think the proper equipment accompanies it." Brian lamented.  He shut his mouth quickly when Dom walked into the room.

"Well that's too bad because he's seriously missing out. And not just on a fine ass. You're a good kid too." The big man finished his workout.

"Well time for me to hit the showers I'm on lunch duty." He grinned and left the room.

Dom stood there awkwardly as Hobbs finished talking to Brian.

So Brian was already taken? He had someone in his sights already? That was good. It meant Dom could move on from whatever the fuck this was and go back to being his usual self.

As soon as Hobbs was out, Dom moved to the weights, working harder than he probably should but he needed the exhaustion, needed the ache to make him forget about the stupidly attractive blonde in the room.

Brian left before him, right as Dom was about to finish. He deliberately did another set of reps to ensure Brian was showered and gone by the time he got to the locker room.

Dom was a coward and he knew it.

Brian showered quickly he didn't know when Dom would be done and the last thing he needed was naked mutual shower time with the guy. This was rough enough without him being naked and wet and shiny, all that slippery skin so close. Brian dragged his thoughts away and washed so he could go focus on something else anything else.

He entered the rec room and found Jesse and Leon playing card. He went over to join them.

"Hey guys. Room for one more?" They agreed and he sat down and pretended not to stare when Dom came into the room after his shower.

Dom smiled fondly at Hobbs humming to himself as he cooked, he was wearing his famous frilly pink apron with cupcakes and bumblebees on it. Owen gave it to him on their first year anniversary, apparently there was a story behind it but no one wanted to ask. Seeing the two in the same room together was disgustingly sweet enough, they didn't need to hear about romantic in jokes.

"What's for lunch?" The other bald man asked.

"Slow cooked beef stew with vegetables for my growing boys and girls." Hobbs teased.

"King among men." Dom grinned at him playfully and headed over to his favourite armchair. He'd grabbed his laptop from his locker on his way out and now sat down to randomly surf the Web, sneaking glances at Brian, Leon and Jesse as they played cards.

Apart from Hobbs cooking and humming the room was unnaturally quiet.

Brian could feel eyes on him. The room was nearly silent and he felt the prickly feeling that he was being stared at. He looked around Dom's eyes were firmly on his laptop and Hobbs was amusing himself in the kitchen. He turned back to his cards. And felt it again. He refused to believe it was Dom. Why would the man be staring at him like that? He couldn't stand him.  

"I'm gonna see what's on TV  guys." He told the two and then moved to the couch.

He was now fully in Dom's line of sight.  He flicked on some cartoons but only half watched them. The other half of his attention was devoted to watching the way Dom's fingers moved on the keys and imagining them somewhere else. He was seriously hopeless.

Dom was keenly aware of Brian's presence right before him. He found himself playing a word association game online. It kept his hands busy and his mind occupied for the time being.

He didn't want to trust himself with idle time for fear he might end up saying something to Brian he would regret.

Before long Hobbs called them all in to eat and Dom savoured the taste of the tender slow cooked meat.

He was three bites from finishing when the siren rang.

"Structure fire. Semi involved. Suspected chemical explosion. Team two and three."

"You heard the lady, swallow and run!" Dom ordered.

Brian had never been more glad to hear the alarm go off. He ran to the truck bay and got into his gear and on the truck in record time.

"Chemical explosion what does that mean for us?" He asked. He'd never experienced one of those before.

"It means cops and orders. You go where you're told is safe, we use a special foam instead of water and we keep out of the way of the police." Leon filled him in.

"Best prepare yourself. Last time we did one of these it was a meth lab that exploded, a woman and her three kids all burnt to a crisp and we had to drag them out. Man I wish we hadn't just had lunch."

"Enough, it's a pharmaceutical storage facility not a meth lab, and there's no fatalities, contain, control and eliminate are our primaries. Everyone understood?" Dom called out to them.

Brian nodded in understanding. He couldn't imagine dealing with a situation like the one Leon described even though he knew he'd eventually have to face things like it.

They got out of the truck and Brian waited for his orders

"Everyone you know your stations, get on it, Probie, this is a learning exercise, listen and pay attention." Dom ordered everyone and marched to the police officer in charge.

"Sir." Dom shook his hand.

"Toretto, good to see you, new probie?"

"Yes sir, he's shadowing me untill we need him elsewhere, what's the situation?"

"Volatiles, nothing too bad but we've got face masks going out, keep yourselves covered, also anyone on site will be subject to a decontamination shower once we're done. Company policy, so no one can sue down the line." the cop rolled his eyes.

"Great. We're on it." Dom marched back to the truck.

"Alright I want masks and full enviro gear! Treat this as a spill and a contaminant scene. We're all showering once the job is done and before we leave the scene. H40 foam in bursts, the fire will run itself out shortly, they're closing off the air as much as possible and we'll smother the rest with foam. Everyone copy?"

Brian took the mask that was handed him and fixed it securely onto his face.

"Where do you want me Lieutenant?" He asked Dom.

Dom had to bite his tongue to keep the reply he wanted to say from coming out.

On your hands and knees would be a nice view.

“Shadow me, we’re going to add the H40 mixture into one of the tanks to create the foam, you ever worked with this stuff before?”

“I can’t say that I have.  But I have been told I’m a quick learner.”  Brian quipped.

I bet you are. Dom thought and had to shake his head to try and fit some sense in there.

“Alright, let’s go.” He lead the blonde up onto the truck and over to the tank access valves.

“Open that up while I grab the H40.” He instructed and opened one of the tool lockers for the plastic jug of chemical.

“The trick with H40 is thick consistent foam, we get that by adding the recommended dosage of two lid fulls per 100 gallons, and then because I know the dosage is a little on the weak side I add an extra two lid fulls anyway.” He worked as he spoke.

“Alright, begin cover when ready.” He called over the radios.

At first the hoses spewed out water then an off yellow semi foam and after a few seconds once the H40 had a chance to mix, thick dense white foam was being sprayed in through the exploded windows, the only source of air for the fire.

Brian watched closely as Dom worked taking in everything he was saying.

He looked on slightly amazed as the water turned to foam and the teams smothered the fire with it.  He followed Dom’s instructions carefully when he told him to add more of the stuff.

“Good.” Dom nodded as Brian measured the doses properly and added the extra like he taught, no hesitation to follow his Lieutenants method rather than the one printed on the label.

The smoke coming from the fire was awful, thick and light grey, the whole place stank and Dom was thankful for the masks the pharmaceutical company provided, no doubt breathing this shit in would shave a few years off their lives.

When the fire was smothered almost an hour later they added an extra layer of foam to everything, checking inside the large concrete building for more sources of ignition or anything that could spark another fire.

When he found none, Dom returned back to the parking lot where portable decon showers were being erected.

“Fuck.” He swore, he’d forgotten about that.

“Alright team, you know the drill, buddy up and get in.”

Leon and Letty buddied up obviously, but then Jesse and Vince were already standing together next to one so it was a no brainer, leaving him and Brian for the last one. Oh boy.

Brian looked around and realized he was going to have to pair with Dom.  He could do this.  He could get through this without embarrassing himself.  

“Well.  Looks like it’s you and me boss.”  Brian said turning to the big man, hoping to diffuse the situation with humor.

Dom gave him an unimpressed look and thanked god it was a cold hose down they were about to get.

“Get in the tent and strip off. You ever had one of these before?”

“Nope.  Are they as awful as they sound?”  Brian asked stripping out of his clothes.

“You ever been in a shower when someone starts using hot water and it goes ball shrivelling cold for a few seconds?”

“Yes?”  Brian answered a bit unsure now that he was naked and enclosed in a small tent with the object of every one of his dirty fantasies.

“Well it’s like that, but for the entire duration of the shower.” Dom told him as the high pressured shower heads began to rain ice cold water down on them.

He grabbed the liquid soap and gave some to Brian before lathering himself up.

“Scrub hard, this is as much for your benefit as the companies.” He was very conscious to keep his back to Brian, the ice water doing a great job of keeping his mind on track.

“Holy Shit!”  Brian shouted as freezing water started pelting him.  He covered himself up for a moment trying to escape the onslaught.

“Holy fucking!  How are you even supposed to…!”  He was cut off when Dom shoved some soap at him.  How the hell was even supposed to function let alone wash himself in this frozen torrent.

His teeth began to chatter and he tried his best to scrub every inch of himself.

“This sucks this sucks this sucks.”  He chanted as he washed.

“Hate to say it but you get used to it.” Dom teased.

He took pity when he heard Brian’s muttering and teeth chattering.

“The sooner you finish the sooner we’ll head back to the house. Usually after a decon shower everyone goes for a long hot one. No doubt that’s what’ll happen five of us guys in a communal shower while Letty gets the female side to herself. at least we’ll be able to talk.” He teased then remembered Brian doesn’t like women.

He started wondering if being in a shower with four other guys was something Brian enjoyed and then cursed himself for thinking that way. Just because he’s gay doesn’t mean he finds every guy attractive, get it together Toretto. He chastised himself.

“Don’t tease me with things I can’t have.”  Brian groaned as shivering, he finished up and hurried into his clothes as soon as he was allowed to.

The sound of a nice hot shower was too much for him.  He couldn’t wait to warm up.  The fact that they were all going to be in a shower together didn’t matter that much to him, he’d spent plenty of times in locker room showers, he just wanted to get warm.

“Everyone done?” Dom called out, pulling his jacket back on, it had also been cleaned for him while he was washing.

“Yes boss.” Came the chorus.

“Good, on the truck. There’s hot showers with our names on them.”

Back at the station, Mia took one look at the group, signed and let them pass to the bathrooms.

“Have fun!” She called after them and headed into the kitchen to tell Hobbs and have a good laugh.

Brian was out of his clothes in record time, turning the dial as hot as it would go he moaned shamelessly.

“Oh fuck that’s good.”  He sighed.  He didn’t care what anyone thought of his noises the shower felt like heaven.

Leon and Jesse laughed at Brian and took the two showers to his left. Vince predictably took the shower furthest from Brian, glaring at him the whole time.

The last showerhead left was Dom's usual in the corner, right next to the blonde making shameless noises.

With a deep sigh Dom stripped off and claimed his shower, turning  it up hot and just holding his head and shoulders under the spray letting it warm him up.

He tried to ignore the noises Brian was making but his cock had other ideas. The larger man turned his back and pinched his inner thigh to alleviate his issue.

Once Brian was warm again he was able to focus more on his surroundings.

Dom had his back to him, and was messing around doing something that looked a little suspicious.

“Umm….you alright there boss?”  He couldn’t help needling the big man, he needed the distraction so he didn’t start doing what it looked like Dom was doing.

Dom turned to glare at Brian. “It’s called personal hygiene.” he spoke holding up the shower gel and exposing his soapy chest.

“I hate the smell of their industrial strength crap.”

“Hey Hey.”  Brian backpedaled holding his hands up. He tried very hard to keep his eyes in the vicinity of the lieutenant’s face.  He somewhat succeeded.

“I was just asking, it looked a little suspicious is all I was saying.  Carry On.”  He saluted and turned to reach for his own body wash.

Dom rolled his eyes.

“Glad I have your permission. Sir.” He shot back. “Am I allowed to finish my shower or do I have to ensure your cleanliness too?” He shot back, tone not quite as teasing as he was hoping, it came out kind of mean.

He regretted it as soon as the words were out his mouth and he had no idea how to salvage the situation.

Brian did a double take.  Did Dom really just say what he thought he said.  He turned back to the older man.

“Well, it is your job to make sure I meet standards….”  He left it at that, tone slightly teasing, but also serious.  He tried not to cringe was he actually flirting with Dom in the shower?  Was this seriously a thing that was happening?

Dom snorted a laugh. “Keep dreaming O'Connor.”

He turned off his shower and dried off quickly, heading to the lockers to dress.

“Last one out misses out on the rest of Hobb’s slow cooked beef!” He reminded them with a grin and took off running for the kitchen.

Brian finished up not long after Dom, dressing quickly so he could get in on some of the leftover stew from lunch.  That stuff had been delicious.  He refused to think about that little exchange from the shower.  He’d save that for later.

Hobbs had the pot out and warming when he got to the kitchen.

“You’re magic Hobbs.  This is freakin amazing.”  Brian told him as he dished up a bowl.

“I like to keep my kiddies fed and happy.” The big man replied.

Brian took his bowl to the couch where Mia was sitting, on the opposite end of the room from Dom.

“So, did you miss me?”  He asked playfully.

“Oh it was awful. I wondered how I’d survive with the gap your smile left in my life.” She deadpanned from over the top of her book.

“How’d it go? You guys had to take a decon shower huh?”

“Don’t even go there.”  He shuddered, taking a bite of his stew and making an entirely inappropriate noise.

“I vote that Hobbs cooks, like everything.  It’s unfair how good it is.”  He called to the big man.

“Only if you do the dishes, dear.”  the paramedic shot back.

“Done.”

Mia giggled a laugh. “Careful Hobbs, don’t want Owen to hear about this, he might never let you leave the bed otherwise.” She teased.

Hobbs gave her a look.

“We’ll discuss this further on next night off.” He threatened.

“So scared.” The brunette teased and turned back to Brian.

“So, I’ve been thinking about this mystery guy of yours.”

“You know that’s dangerous.”  He said with a grin.

“Oh so dangerous.” Mia teased.

“What we should do, is scope him out a little, find out if there’s any mutual friends and you should just worm your way into the social group, from there you’ll be at all kinds of events with him and it’ll be easier for you to talk to him without the threat of having your face punched in, you can also get a better gauge for if he likes cock.”

Brian chewed slowly and tried to think of a way to respond to her suggestion, which was obviously not an option.

“See about that, I know we have a couple of mutual friends, but it’s not really a situation where we all just go out together.  It’s complicated.” He went for the typical cop out trying to keep her off the scent.

“Sweetie, complicated is sleeping with a man who is married to a woman in politics. I’m sure this is a fuckload simpler.” She teased.

“C’mon, just tell me who he is!” She pouted.

“That face doesn’t work on me.  Cute as it is.”  Brian deflected.

“Bitch please you love my face.” Mia laughed and put her book down.

“Seriously though if you don’t tell me now I’ll get it out of you on girls night. Or Hobbs will threaten to withhold his cooking.” She threatened.

“Oh no not that.  Anything but that!”  Brian cried dramatically, getting up to put his bowl in the sink.

“Still not telling you.” He whispered kissing her cheek and then going into the kitchen.

“You don’t play fair, Brian O’Conner!” Mia cried startling half the room as she glared at him in a put upon pout.

Brian grinned and washed his bowl.

“What fun is playing fair, darling?”  He called back, dried his bowl and headed outside, he wanted some fresh air.

“I’m going to go sit outside, care to join?”  He asked her.

Mia nodded and caught the snickers from Vince and Letty.

She frowned at them, suspicious as they headed out to the courtyard, where most of the smokers went.

The sun was shining and it felt good on Mia’s face.

“So what are you doing next night off?” She asked. “Because I wanna invite you to something.”

Brian sat on the picnic table and turned his face up to the sun, basking in it’s warmth.

“I dunno you tell me?”

“Well, it’s kind of a thing, Hobbs, Letty and I do. Once a month we have a girls night where we eat too much sugar and drink too much and basically bitch about boys.” She explained.

“You wanna come to the next one?”

“Ice cream, booze, and boy trouble.  Count me in!”  He cried with a grin.

Mia laughed happily and smiled. “Good, Hobb’s been waiting for another guy to join us and even things out.”

She closed her eyes and relaxed back on the chair, enjoying the sun and dozing a little.

When the wind picked up, she yawned.

“We should go insi....the fuck?” She stared at Brian for a few moments.

“Fucking Vince.” She muttered and headed inside to bitch the man out.

“What?  Mia!”  He called jogging after her.

“Mia!  What’s wrong?”  He called when he finally caught up to her in the rec room as she made a beeline for Vince.

The chorus of laughter stopped him.

“What did you guys do?”  He knew instantly that he must have been pranked, it was an often enough occurrence that he recognized the signs.  He looked down at himself, and turned around trying to see if someone had stuck something on his back.

“Seriously guys.  What the fuck is going on?”

“You okay Bri?” Leon asked him, trying to hold back his laughter. “You look a little blue.”

“Yeah man, you’re looking really off colour today.” Jesse added.

“Maybe you should go lie down, get your head out of the clouds.” Letty added.

It was quiet for a few seconds before everyone burst out laughing again. Dom had to hold onto the kitchen bench to keep from falling over.

“Go look in the mirror, Probie,” Hobbs told him kindly.

Brian looked confusedly at them, what the fuck was wrong with these people.

He went to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror.

Blue.  His hair was blue.

“WHAT THE FUCK!  YOU GUYS!  COME THE FUCK ON!  THIS IS TAKING IT TOO FUCKING FAR!”  He shrieked and then marched back into the rec room.

“THIS IS NOT FUCKING FUNNY!”  He yelled as they all convulsed in laughter, all except Mia, and Hobbs who was desperately trying to cover his chuckles.

“WHAT THE FUCK.  THIS WASHES OUT RIGHT?  IF THIS IS PERMANENT I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I’M GOING TO KILL ALL OF YOU!”  With that he stormed off.

They all watching him go, Vince highfived with Letty and grinned. “Worth it.”

“Someone should go calm him down, teach him how to wash it out.” Jesse said softly, feeling guilty.

Dom sighed.

“I’ll go. Consider yourselves scolded and firmly spoken to about this kind of behaviour.” He told them in his best Lieutenant voice.

He headed into the bunk room and couldn’t find Brian, he tried the bathroom next and found him shirtless, leaning over the sinks washing his hair.

“There’s a shampoo that washes it out.” Dom told him. “I’ve got some.”

He opened his locker and pulled out the colour strip shampoo that went with the gag shampoo.

"Yeah thanks." Brian told him tersely as he finished rinsing his hair and took the bottle from the lieutenant.

He was usually pretty cool about the pranks. Understood they came with the territory and usually rolled with them. This one though was a bit over the top. What if they had gotten a call. He could get into serious trouble.

"I told everyone to cool it with the pranks. This'll be the last one." Dom told him. He assumed it was the last, usually the dye came out when the team were ready to accept the Probie, then again, this was Vince's doing so who knows.

"Blue's a good colour on you." Dom blurted, he had been focusing on Brian's head and hands to avoid his naked torso and the way his ass looked in those uniform pants when he bent over.

"So I've been told." Brian answered bending low over the sink to use the new shampoo ignoring the fact that it probably put his ass on perfect display.

Dom spared a quick glance at Brian’s ass and bit back a groan.

He moved to be leaning his ass against the sink next to Brian, making sure the blonde’s ass was out of view.

“It’s coming out properly now.” He said, watching Brian’s strong fingers glide through his hair. “You’ll have the cleanest hair in the house.” He gave a small chuckle.

"Well there's something at least. I'll get all the boys to come running with my gleaming tresses." Brian deadpanned rinsing his hair out.

"Is it all out?" He asked the older man while checking the mirror.

Dom checked his hair over, running his hands through it, searching for any blue.

“Looks like it’s all gone, take the bottle and use it again next time you shower.” He offered and realised he still had his hands in Brian’s hair.

Quickly he pulled them back and averted his eyes. Brian’s hair was really soft. It’s also the perfect length for tugging on and Dom really can’t afford to think like that with the younger man so close and shirtless in front of him.

Brian tried to cover the noise he made as Dom ran his fingers through his hair.  It was a weakness of his and he couldn’t imagining the situation in a different context.  He had to drag his thoughts away from those thoughts and compose himself.  He couldn’t be half naked next to the big man and have him caressing his hair that way.  He would ruin everything.

“Thanks.  I will.”  He said softly and backed away, looking for his shirt.

Dom noticed the closed off expression on Brian’s face and the way he took a step back.

“Sorry.” Dom said softly before he could stop himself, he’d obviously made the guy uncomfortable.

“I should go finish my paperwork.” He muttered and turned, heading out the door as quickly as possible.

He wasn’t fleeing, it was a strategic retreat.

Brian was bewildered as Dom all but ran from the room.  What did he do?  He picked up his shirt and put it on, heading out to the rec room.  He ignored where Vince was snickering to himself and plopped himself between Jesse and Mia.

“Well at least it matched my eyes.”  

Mia gave him a kind smile.

“Yes it did.” She agreed. “I’ve convinced Jesse here to give Game of Thrones a try so we’re going to start marathoning it as of tomorrow, you in?” She grinned.

“Hell yeah.  That show looked awesome.”  He grinned.

***

Brian knocked on the door to Mia’s place.

“I brought wine.”  He said holding up the two bottles he’d brought to girls night.

Mia grinned happily and clapped excitedly.

“Tonight is going to be awesome, come on in.” She ushered him inside with a hug and kiss on the cheek. “Head on through to the kitchen, Letty is running a little late but Hobbs is cooking.” She smiled, closing the door behind him.

“Evening.” Hobbs grinned to Brian as he expertly flicked his wrist while holding the fry pan, sending the contents whooshing up into the air, mixing and then back into the pan.

“I like my food cooked, not splattered about my kitchen from someone showing off.” Mia teased grabbing a glass and pouring some already open wine for Brian.

Brian took his wine and snactched a bite from the pan Hobbs was cooking.  Hobbs smacked his hand lightly.

“Naughty boy.  No picking until it’s done!” Hobbs chastised.

“Yes Dear.” Brian grinned and took a seat on one of the stools at the island.

“So what are we doing tonight?  More Game of Thrones?”  He asked Mia

Hobbs let out a small groan.

“Hobb’s has veto’d it on account of the amount of tits in it.” Mia sighed. “The cock to tits and pussy ratio is ridiculous, there are about 50 scenes of fully naked girls, full frontal and only one of men, It’s sexist and misogynistic.” He glared.

Mia patted him on the back. “Drink your wine we will not be watching any tonight.” She promised.

“What we will be doing, however, is drinking and bitching.” The doorbell rang.

“LETTY!” Mia cheered and rushed to open the door.

“I will give you that one Uncle Hobbs. There should be a much better cock to tits ratio.”  Brian told him, taking a sip of his wine.

“Hey Letty.”  Brian greeted.  “Have a glass of wine.  Hobbs and I were just discussing the complete and utter lack of dick in Game of Thrones and what a travesty that is.”  Brian told her, handing her a glass.

"Ugh tell me about it. If i have to watch any more tits bounce while some chick gets fucked in a whore house I think I'll scream." she rolled her eyes and took a sip of the wine.

"Oh man we got the good stuff open already?" she asked with a grin.

"You know it." Mia winked.

"Foods ready!" Hobbs declared and migrated to the dinner table with the hot plates. The idea was the four dishes were on the table and you helped yourself.

The open bottle of wine and a second unopened bottle were also brought over, because it was inevitable.

Brian made his plate and took a seat, moaning at the delicious flavor of the first bite.

“Fuck Hobbs.  I swear if you weren’t already taken I would do literally anything for your cooking.  Hell I still will.”  Brian teased taking another bite.

“You should demand more than just cooking if you’re making an offer like that.”  Hobbs told him with a wink.

“Besides, I do it for free, I like to keep my kiddies fed.”  He smiled, taking a large helping for himself.

"If you keep calling us kiddies and Brian keeps offering sexual favours this is gonna get awkward quick." Letty pointed out.

"This is true, besides Brian already has a man in mind, don't you dear?" she grinned throwing him in the deep end. Letty and Hobbs are persistent.

“Oh no you don’t.  I haven’t had nearly enough wine for that.” Brian told her.  He was on to what she was planning.  It wasn’t going to work.

“Well here, let me help you out with that.”  Hobbs teased, filling his half empty glass back up.

The group laughed together.

“Alright Hobbs, you first you said you had something to bitch about.” Mia prompted.

“Firstly I want to protest the naming of these events girls nights, there are not just girls here so I think a gender neutral ‘Bitch about boys’ night should be used.” He said and finished it with a drink of wine

Mia snorted a laugh. “All those in favour?” she asked in her best official voice, Letty raised her hand and they all looked to Brian.

"Nope I am just in total agreement that the name should be changed. There are as many guys here as girls now. So...." Brian trailed off when he realized everyone else was laughing at him.

"Screw y'all I'm getting some more food for our bitch about boys night" he huffed flipping his hair dramatically

Mia rolled her eyes. "You're such a queen." she told him playfully.

"Please, he's a Khaleesi." Hobbs teased which started Letty laughing like crazy.

"I thought we agreed Dom was khal? So if Brian's Khaleesi.... Now that is definitely something I wanna watch." the brunette said matter of fact.

“Kindly not talk about watching my brother have sex while I'm eating." Mia reminded her.

"Kindly refrain from talking about watching me have sex. Unless it’s actually going to happen. Then we can discuss prices and/or involvement." Brian winked bringing his plate back to the couch.

"But this Khaleesi thing now that's something I can get behind. Or in front of, you know, if the Khal is hot." Brian grinned cheekily.

Letty rolled her eyes.

"Have you seen Dom? Of course he's hot. I used to think he could glare a fire into going out." Letty snorted.

"It's the shoulder to waist ratio." Hobbs shrugged "Gets to everyone, Owen loves it." He grinned lightly flexing his own arms and shoulders.

"Can we not talk about how attractive my brother may or may not be?" Mia pouted. "We need to finish eating, consume more wine and have a good night."

“Don’t tease Hobbs.”  Brian teased, poking him lightly.

“I can’t eat anymore but I will take some more wine.”  Brian sighed.  “Anyone want some?”  Hobbs held up his glass.

“I’ll take some.”  

“You got it hot stuff.”  Brian winked.

“Good lord, this was an awful idea to have you two in the same room together.” Mia groaned. “Now, it’s time for important business, Letty. Would you like to start off the bitch session?”

“Leon has the coldest feet in the world.” she grumbled. “I have to make him share with me on the couch cause he can’t take his boots off in the rec room. If we go to the bunk room he takes his boots and socks off and his feet are fucking freezing and he always wants to put them on mine.”

Hobbs snorted a laugh.

“Sweet heart, be thankful that’s your only issue.” He rolled his eyes.

Brian laughed.

“Trouble in paradise Hobbsie?”  Brian teased noticing the man’s tone.

Hobbs rolled his eyes and took a drink of his wine.

“Owen wants kids.” He said simply, but it was a half sigh. “He wants to adopt or surrogate and raise them and I’m fine with that, but he… he wants me to get a safer job before we do.”

Mia put a hand on his shoulder. “You do one of the most important jobs out there, what you do keeps other people safe and alive. I thought you two worked this out?”

Hobbs shrugged. “So did I.”

Letty remained quiet drinking her wine, she knew her opinions wouldn’t be appreciated and so kept quiet.

Brian held his tongue.  Hobbs was upset obviously but Owen did have a point.  Brian knew first hand how well it worked out when someone in the job tried to raise a kid, they eventually had to choose between the two.  Brian had lost that toss up in his father’s eyes.  

He didn’t envy Hobbs’ situation but he what decision he would have made in his position.  He didn’t think Hobbs’ would appreciate hearing that though.

“So what are you going to do?”  He asked the big man.

Hobbs shrugged. “We’ve got time. I’m 31 and Owens 29. We have a lot of time before raising kids will be an issue. I know I can’t keep doing this forever so maybe in 10 years time something will happen and things will just work.” He offered.

“That’s a good way to look at it.” Mia nodded.

“Alright, I’m done, who’s next?” Hobbs asked, trying to change the topic.

“I vote, Mia. bitch to us about Brian.” Letty laughed.

Mia went red. “That was before I knew he was gay, you can’t hold that against me!” Mia pouted.

“Wait...what.” Brian said on a laugh.

“You knew me all of two days before I told you I wasn’t interested in the fairer sex.  You really had a bitch session about me?”  He needled.

Letty snorted a laugh.

"Please, looking the way you do of course we were gonna talk about it. New guy, attractive and a gentlemen. First thing you do is complain to your friends that he hasn't asked you out yet." she teased.

Mia was bright red.

Brian blushed just slightly.

“Well mamma always said I was gonna be a heartbreaker.  I do apologize for any pain and mental anguish I may have caused.”  He answered cheekily.  “I will of course make up for it in any way I can.”  He winked and grinned.

"I think that was the point of the new delivery but hey do i get to watch?" Letty teased.

Mia went bright red.

"Oh it finally got here huh?" Hobbs snickered a laugh.

"Can we not. Please?" Mia begged.

“Oh.  OH!  Is this the thing that you’ve been avoiding.  The thing that makes you blush at the mention of it.  You have to tell now.”  Brian told her, nudging her shoulder.

“Come on.  Spill.”

"Mia splurged and brought a high end sexy toy because it had been so long since she got laid." Letty blurted.

"Letty!"

"What it's true!"

Mia hid her face in her hand.

Brian tried very hard to hide his grin.  He did  not succeed.

“Awww it’s ok.  It happens to the best of us.”  Brian patted Mia’s back sympathetically.

"Fuck you." Mia sulked.

"Alright Brian. Your turn. Tell us all about it." Hobbs grinned.

“Tell you about what?”  Brian replied innocently.

“I have nothing to tell.  That’s the problem.”  He deflected. There was no way in hell he was telling them about his fixation on their hot as hell lieutenant.  He’d had a hard enough time trying to keep his composure earlier when they were discussing him as the Khaleesi with Dom has his Khal.  Fuck if that image wasn’t hot as hell.

"Lies!" Mia cried. "Tell them all about tall buff and sexy you met at the club." she insisted.

"Mr straight you're pining over."

Brian groaned.

“What’s to tell?  He’s gorgeous as sin.  Built as fuck, like jesus, I want that man to throw me onto a bed and just do wicked naughty things to me.  Unfortunately he is straight.  Like seriously straight and it is unfair.”  Brian lamented  taking a large sip of wine.

The three friends all moved closer, elbows on the table, head in their hands, their best listening faces on.

“Go on,” Hobbs encouraged. “Get it all out, I can see the frustration from here.” He spoke kindly.

“You guys are ridiculous.  And it’s nothing, he’s just.  He’s a really genuinely nice guy.  He cares so much about the people around him and I just Fuck.  I want him so bad in more ways than just wanting him to fuck me until I can’t walk straight. I just want to be around him.  I want him to turn that attention and caring on me. And now I sound pathetic so I’m gonna go get more wine and shut up before I embarrass myself more.”  He told them.  He went to get up but a wine bottle was already in front of him.

“Cheers.” He said filling his glass.

Mia sighed.

“Sounds like you’re in looooooove.” Letty sing-songed teasingly.

Hobbs snorted a laugh. “Please, if you looked like Brian you wouldn’t have time for love, too many good looking people wanting your attention. My advice, find someone to fuck your frustrations into and get over him.”

“Luke!” Mia cried outraged. “No, he needs to tell this guy how he feels and they can live happily ever after.”

“You can be his gay experiment!” Letty teased.

“Letty! That’s cruel.” Mia scalded her.

Brian groaned as the suggestions rolled in.

“One.  I tried that Hobbs and couldn’t seal the deal they guy was an adonis too, well except for the beard.  Could have done without that.”  He mused.

“Two.  Mia’s right Letty.  It’s not fair to me or him if I did that.  No, no, I’ll just pine from afar.”  Brian sighed.

“Or you can stop being such a Khaleesi and tell us who it is so we can help you.” Mia hinted.

“Drop it Mia, he’ll tell us when he’s really miserable after his plan of pining from afar goes wrong.” Hobbs told her wisely.

“Now, no more talk, time to drink and watch awful movies.” He declared.

***

Dom felt completely ridiculous.

He glanced around the club from his spot at the end of the bar. This is such a bad idea. He thought, frustrated.

The bar was almost on the other side of the city, far enough away from everyone he knew, that felt felt safe to be seen here.

Dom surveyed the multitudes of hot sweaty bodies moving and grinding with one another, most of the guys were shirtless and fit in one way or another, but it all seemed so superficial, like their strength and physiques were just there to look at and served no practical use, unlike Dom.

A few guys on the outskirts of the dance floor caught eye contact with him but Dom shied away from it.

He hadn't been sure what to wear that was appropriate, so he went with worn comfortable jeans and one of his tight tank tops.

He guessed they were all fascinated with his arms.

Since he'd arrived, Dom had politely and not so politely told a total of three strangers he wasn't interested, apparently that made the rest who were interested in him, even more intrigued.

"Evening."

Dom looked up to the blonde with brown eyes and a little stubble.

"Ugh. Hi." He replied

"So, I haven't seen you around before. New in town?" The blonde asked the guy in front of him.

The guy was big, built like a tank and he would be more than happy to take him home for the night.

Dom frowned. “No, just the other side of it.” He shrugged.

The blonde was kind of attractive, he supposed. Wide brown eyes, soft dirty blonde hair, not at light as Brian’s though. The stubble reminded him of how Brian had come into the house with red marks on his neck not too long ago.

“I’m Dom,” He offered his hand hoping this was okay etiquette, he’d never been to a gay bar before.

"Danny." The blonde offered. Taking Dom's hand and shaking it firmly.

"So what brings you to our fine establishment tonight?" He could clearly see the big man was a bit off kilter and Danny found it endearing.

“Been thinking about visiting lately.” He admitted, knowing this guy could probably read between the lines.

“So I figured I’d stop by and see if it was my thing.” The larger man shrugged. “I’m still not sure his was a good idea.”

Danny smiled kindly.  He knew what the big man was trying to say without actually saying.

"Well why don't you let me buy you a drink, or you can buy me one if that's more your speed." He winked playfully.

"And we can figure it out while you tell me about yourself, and then maybe later, if you're feeling brave, we can take a turn on the dancefloor." The blonde suggested.

Dom snorted a small laugh.

“Tell you what, you buy me a Corona and keep me interested for the time it takes for me to drink it and I’ll let you show me the ropes on the dance floor.” Dom attempted to flirt back. He hoped it came across well.

Danny smiled. The guy was obviously nervous but he was trying. The blonde found the big man absolutely adorable.

"Oooo a challenge I like that. Alright Mister I'll take you up on that offer." He signaled the bartender over and ordered a Corona for his new friend and another jack and coke for himself.

"To new friends and new experiences." He toasted clinking his glass against the neck of Dom's bottled before taking a sip.

"So what do you do for a living?" He asked casually.

Dom enjoyed the first mouthful of his beer.

“I ugh…” He wasn’t too sure he was comfortable with giving details but he could stay vague. “I’m a firefighter.” He admitted.

Danny raised an eyebrow.  He wasn't expecting that, but it made him all the more attracted to the larger man.  Now that he knew those muscles weren't just for show, he would love to experience a display of their power.  He refrained from making the obvious fireman pole innuendo, maybe one day if he and the big man got close, and he got more comfortable.  The guy was clearly trying not to reveal too much about himself.

"Oh really?  And is it everything you dreamed of when you were a little boy?"  

Dom shrugged.

“It’s rewarding, helping people, keeping them safe. I enjoy it.” He agreed with a small smile.

“What about you? What do you do for a living?” He asked, taking another drink of his beer. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to sip it slowly and make it harder for Danny to ‘win’ this little challenge or gulp it all down for the liquid courage to get off the stool and move.

Danny smiled and took another sip of his drink.

“I teach high school English.”  He grinned.

Dom almost choked on his drink.

“Really? How’s that going for you?” He asked chuckling and remembering what he was like to his high school english teacher.

Danny half laughed at Dom’s almost spit take, he handed him a napkin instead.

“Don’t die now, I’ve still got plans for you this evening.”  He winked with a playful smirk.

“And teenagers will be teenagers.  The trick is to present the material in a way that is interesting, and to pick good stuff for them to read.  I have been told by many that I am their favorite teacher.  So, I guess it’s going pretty well.  I love it so that’s all that really matters to me.”  He finished with a fond smile.

Dom flushed at the comment of Danny having plans for him, his mind instantly strayed to bedroom material and he shivered, he wasn’t sure if the idea aroused or scared him but he didn’t feel too uncomfortable.

“To enjoying what you do.” Dom saluted and clinked their drinks together again.

“So I’m going to be honest, I have no idea what I’m doing and I don’t mean to lead you on or anything but I don’t think I’m… well, feeling it. If that makes sense?” Dom figured if he didn’t have the same reaction to Danny as he did Brian then this probably wasn’t going to work.

Danny couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at Dom’s words.  He had been hoping to take a spin on the dancefloor at the very least. But he understood and he wasn’t about to push.

“Hey, no sweat.  Thanks for having a drink with me.  It was great meeting you Dom.”  He told the older man holding out his hand for him to shake.

“And hey, don’t be afraid to stop by again sometime.”

Dom smiled. “Thanks for understanding. To be honest, there’s this guy.” He admitted.

“Isn’t there always?” Danny quipped.

Dom chuckled. “He’s kind of amazing and I think he’s spoilt me for everyone else. He’s kind of the reason I’m…. questioning.” Hoping that Danny wouldn’t be bored or annoyed about talking about someone else.

“Aww love at first sight.  Tell me about this mystery man.  Maybe we can devise a plan for you to catch him?”  Danny was caught up in Dom’s story.  It was entirely too cute.

Dom blushed bright red and took a sip of his beer.

“His name is Brian. He’s… He’s really smart and he’s got a good heart and instinct for the job. He’s my Probie at the house. I’ve been training him for the last few weeks and he’s a really great guy.”

The larger man paused and took a breath.

“We had to shower after a shitty call out and I caught a glimpse of him and it started all of this. I know he’s gay, he’s very much out but I don’t know if I can handle actually…” He stopped and blushed more which was so uncharacteristic for him he felt ridiculous.

“In theory and in my head it makes sense and I’m on board with it but the idea of actually… doing anything scares the fuck out of me. So I figured coming here would be a good idea but… I just. I don’t know if I can."

Danny reached out and placed a hand comfortingly on Dom’s forearm.

“It’s ok to to question and be nervous you know.  Have you tried talking to him, outside of the job that is?”  He asked kindly.  He didn’t envy the guy his situation but it wasn’t insurmountable.

“Ugh no.” Dom admitted. “We’re not exactly friends. We only really have a work relationship. I can’t exactly invite him out without it looking suspicious.” He admitted. The animosity was his fault he knew that but he was still annoyed Brian had taken a liking to Leon and Jesse and Mia so quickly when the two guys played pranks on him too. Other than their blow up when Brian first started things had been going well.

“You don’t have to immediately ask him on a date.  Just talk to him causally, find out what he likes, what he doesn’t like.  Get to know him as a person, not just a subordinate.  Then if you’re still feeling it, see where it goes.  Baby steps, not giant leaps.”  Danny consulted.  Dom could make it work if he wanted to, he just had to take the first step.

“I have no idea how to do that.” Dom admitted. “I feel like if I ask him to come out with me somewhere it’ll feel like a date for me but not for him.”

He finished his beer and sighed. “I just feel like everything will be unbalanced and I like transparency when friendships are involved. I like everyone knowing where they stand and I don’t…. I don’t think I’m his type.”

“So don’t ask him somewhere, just talk to him at work, in your downtime.  And how do you know you’re not his type.  Do you have any idea what his type is?  Cause trust me, you’re most people’s type.”  Danny told him with a playful grin.

Dom rolled his eyes. “It’s just… it’s strange. I have no idea what I’m doing and I don’t like not being in control. Everything about this situation just makes me unnerved and feel awkward.” He sighed, signalling for another beer from the bartender.

Danny nodded and grabbed another drink from the bartender as well.  It looked like this was going to take a while.

“Yeah I could see that.  Ok let me ask you this.  What would you do if he were a girl.  You’d ask her out right away right?  Ok, not an option here, but you would get to know her on that first date.  How would you do that?”

“Take her to dinner at the diner, take her where she wanted to go afterwards, pay for everything and just talk I guess.” Dom replied. “But I feel like I can’t just do that with Brian, I feel like it would be too awkward or he’d shoot me down. We can’t just talk, we’ve only really spoken about work so I have no idea how I’d get to know him outside of that.”

“Ok relax.  What’s his favorite TV show?  What kind of ice cream does he like?  What music does he listen to?  Don’t know the answers to these questions find out.  You’re watching TV one day between calls, start up a conversation about what’s on.  You’re having dinner at the house start talking about food.  This doesn’t have to be some sexually charged situation, you’re not trying to take him back to your place to fuck him, just talk to the guy.  You’ll never get anywhere if you don’t try.”  Danny told him, trying not to get frustrated.

He understood that the whole situation was probably very scary for the big man, but he was making it way more complicated than it needed to be.

"Okay. I guess I can do that." Dom nodded. "And if anyone asks i'm just making amends for the pranks." He gave a small smile.

"Thanks for your help. I feel like I owe you a dance now." He offered with an awkward smile.

Danny smiled.

“Well aren’t I the lucky boy.  But are you sure you’re up to it?  You’re still not up to talking to the object of your affections.  I would hate for you to push yourself past what you were comfortable with.”  Danny teased gently but also completely serious.  He wanted Dom to have had a good time, not have a freakout on the dance floor.

"I can handle dancing. I dance with women it's not that much different right?" Dom asked, suddenly nervous that there was a difference and social etiquette was different.

“Aside from the obvious lack of boobs not really.  Come on.  Lets go.”  He took Dom’s hand and led him out onto the floor.  He turned to face him once they’d claimed a small spot for themselves.  He started off easy, just dancing by each other wanting to give Dom some time to adjust.

Dom wasn't really the best dancer but he could move with the beat and he could play with his partner if he wanted.

Danny was giving him space and Dom appreciated it greatly.

The crowd seemed to be closing in around them and pushing them closer but he didn't mind, it was fun and Danny knew the score.

The floor got crowded as the song changed. Danny reached out a put a hand on Dom's shoulder still leaving plenty of space between them but seeing how the big man reacted as he continued to swing his hips with the beat.

Dom took the initiative and moved in closer by a step, swaying with the beat, a small smile on his face.

"S'not so bad." He grinned, moving a little more freely, relaxed.

Danny smiled.

"Well I'm glad you think so."

He decided to take a chance moving a hair closer until their bodies were almost touching and then turning around swaying his hips just right and reaching up to put his hands around Dom's neck. They weren't grinding but if he was lucky Dom might put those big hands of his on his hips and really let him go.

Dom stiffened as Danny got closer.

He didn't protest to the hands around his neck but he wasn't ready for more.

Dom relaxed into the touch but kept his hands to himself.

"It's getting hot." He muttered for lack of anything else to say.

Someone bumped Dom from behind, pushed him into Danny so they were pressed together from shoulder to hip.

Dom froze instantly.

Danny felt Dom stiffen and then bump against him and he immediately took a step away and turned around.

"Sorry. That was an accident." He apologized even though it wasn't his fault he wanted to make the man more comfortable.

"You OK? You want to go back to the bar? Get a drink and cool off?" He asked

Dom didn't know what possessed him to do it but he took a step forward getting into Danny's space again, heart  beating wildly in his chest.

“Let's keep dancing.” He wanted to prove to himself this wasn't just a Brian thing. He either likes guys or women or both he can't just like women and Brian. That's stupid.

Danny grinned.

"If you're sure." He smiled and put his hands back on Dom's shoulder dancing close. But not close enough to touch letting the big man set the pace.

Dom relaxed into the movement again. He could do this. This was easy. He watched the way Danny looked at him, he felt powerful knowing this man was interested in him, that people found him attractive. The beers he had consumed were working their way to his brain and Dom was moving properly now, not caring about people around them, he pulled Danny in closer, smiling to the guy and himself. He could do this.

"That's the ticket." Danny said encouragingly with a hint of a flirtatious smile.  He let his hips sway a bit more. Let himself move a bit more freely happy to see Dom was loosening up, getting more comfortable.

Without thinking Dom moved in closer, treating Danny the way he would a woman he was trying to pick up. He only danced when it was for these reasons. His face moved closer to Danny's neck, still moving their hips together, not quite grinding but close enough. Dom felt good, felt on top of the world. He could do this and it would feel amazing. Dom turned his head, caught Danny's eye and then moved forward to kiss him and felt.... nothing.

It didn't feel particularly good, it didn't feel different except the beard tickling his cheeks. Pulling back Dom frowned. "I don't know why I did that." He admitted, feeling guilty and awful for leading Danny on like that.

"I don't either but I'm glad you did. It was nice. No fireworks though." He mused.  

The kiss had been unexpected but very welcome. He knew this wasn't going anywhere but it was still nice to be found attractive enough for a kiss.

Dom shrugged. "I think I just confirmed what I didn't want too." He admitted and nodded towards the bar so they could sit and chat. When they got there Dom ordered them drinks and paid, it was the least he could do for surprise kissing the guy. "I think it's just Brian." He admitted. "I don't think it'll be guys in general, just him."

Danny took a sip of his drink.

"Fair enough, but that means you actually have to talk to him now." Danny pointed out.

Dom nodded. "Yeah I guess." He agreed and sighed. "Thanks for you help, and I'm sorry about before." He bit his bottom lip. Well at least his first gay kiss was out of the way.

Danny laughed lightly.

"Hey no worries. I enjoyed it. And I got to end my night with a dance and a kiss with a super hot fireman. Its a win win." He grinned playfully.

Dom laughed. "Alright, well I'm glad you had a good time. I'm gonna go home and figure out how to talk to him."  He finished his beer and stood up. "I might see you around." He offered holding out his hand.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. Stop by again sometime. Bring your young man." He grinned shaking Dom's hand.

Dom chuckled and nodded. "I might. Take care Danny."

"You too. Be safe." He told Dom before he walked away. Danny sighed a little in disappointment the guy was hot and a genuinely nice guy. He was sad to see him go.

Dom got home shortly after that, he had done the smart thing and taken a cab to the bar so he did the same to get home.

**  
He managed to get himself to bed and pass out without achieving much more than kicking off his shoes.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a side note: Both myself and Nommedeplume will be traveling for the next week and a half. So next weeks chapter will be late. We apologise for the inconvenience.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of update last week. Nommedeplume and I are back from our mini road trip. (It was glorious) Here is a fun little update for you all.  
> Enjoy!

Brian walked into the firehouse for his first shift of his graveyard rotation with a smile on his face.  He'd had a nice two days off kicked off with Bitch About Boys night and ending with a relaxing day just hanging around his apartment catching up on housework.

 

"Hey beautiful. How you doin'" He teased when he saw Mia

 

Mia turned around and smiled at Brian. "Hey you." She smiled and gave him a hug. "I'm good. how was your day off?"

 

"It was good. I finally reached the summit of Laundry Mountain."  He teased.  "How was yours?

 

Mia chuckled. “About the same. Dom’s been in a good mood too, something about a self discovery.” She shrugged with a smile. “Doesn’t bother me any, I’m just glad he’s out of his funk.”

 

“Well awesome.  Maybe these next few shifts won’t be hell cause he’s in a snit.”  Brian grinned and then went to the locker room to put his bag away.

 

“Evening boss.”  He greeted the big man.

 

Dom startled a little and turned to face Brian.

 

“Oh, hi.” He smiled, but it wasn’t a full smile just yet, still awkward.

 

Brian looked happy and looked relaxed.

 

“You look good.” He said, slightly awkwardly. “I mean, relaxed, refreshed.” He stopped.

 

“How was your time off?” He settled for eventually.

 

Brian tired not to goggle completely at the older man.  It was out of character for him to be so friendly to the blonde.

 

“It was good.  I just hung around yesterday, took care of some stuff around the house, you know.”  He shrugged and closed his locker.

 

“How was yours?”  He asked. If Dom was trying to be friendly Brian could return the favor.

 

Dom shrugged. “It was good, I went out the first night, to a bar.” He started. “I learnt a few things about myself so, that was interesting. I spent the rest sleeping and thinking things over.” He finished honestly.

 

“Oh yeah?  Sounds like fun.”  Brian said easily.

 

“I think there’s a game on, Leon was talking about it.  I’m gonna go watch.  You coming?”  He asked casually.

 

“Yeah, sure. I’ve been meaning to catch up with you properly for a bit, there’s some evaluation stuff we need to go through.” Dom said easily.

 

Brian felt a shiver of nerves shoot through him at that.  Was Dom happy because he was about to get rid of him?  Is that what had shaken him from his funk?  He hoped not.  He really liked it here and he thought he’d been doing a pretty good job so far.

 

“Oh, alright.”  Brian answered nervously as they headed to the rec room.

 

“It’s okay, nothing bad, I just have to get your feedback on your experiences here at the house. You’re not going anywhere, Brian. You’re a good asset to this team.” Dom could see the nerves on Brian’s face.

 

Brian’s face brightened at that.  High praise from his Lieutenant was hard to come by.

 

“Oh well, ok then.” He smiled letting out a relieved sigh.

 

“You about gave me a heart attack.  I thought I was getting the axe there for a minute.”  He laughed.

 

Dom laughed with him and felt his belly shift with butterflies and nerves. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

 

He put a friendly hand on the back of Brian’s shoulders and hoped his tactile approach wasn’t going to be unwelcome.

 

“Apology accepted.”  Brian smiled, he felt tingles spreading out from where Dom had placed his hand.  He liked it.  He stopped the traitorous thoughts about where else he would like that hand before they could even get started.

 

“Now lets get this done.  I don’t want to miss any of this game.”  Brian said excitedly

 

Dom chuckled. “The admin stuff can wait, we’ll watch the game as much as we can before we get a call out.” He teased. “Then we can work this out once everyone’s sleeping. It’s supposed to be done in private.”

 

Brian’s grin widened.

 

“Even better.  Oh look chips!”  He said excitedly, snagging the bowl and plopping onto the couch.

 

“Come on Dom. Puck drop. Get over here.”  The rec room was crowded.  The Kings were doing well and while Brian may have been the only really avid hockey fan, the others joined in since it wasn’t often their hockey team went that far.

 

They were midway through the second period with much screaming and cursing on the part of Brian, when the alarm went off.

 

“Son of a Bitch.” Brian groaned, turning the TV off and heading to the truck bay with the rest of the team.

 

Dom chuckled and very much enjoyed watching the blonde get worked up over the game.

 

“Alright everyone to the truck!” He shouted moving up off the couch and heading to the bay.

 

Once suited up he was in the front on the radio to Central command for more details.

 

“Alright team,” He said over the comms once the information was obtained.

 

“We have a structure fire. Two children inside, I’ll be going in and I need a second, Vince you’re it. This is a simple smash and grab while the others douse the house. Any questions?”

 

Everyone shook their heads or answered in the negative, this was a pretty straightforward run.  They pulled up outside the house and Brian followed Leon, helping get the hoses set up while Dom and Vince got their gear on and headed inside.

 

Brian tried to tamp down his nervousness, he didn’t like this, something felt off about it, he didn’t know what but he just had a bad feeling.  Still he did his job, taking one of the hoses and turning it on the flames.

 

Dom and Vince were suited up and headed inside. Dom could feel the heat even though his safety gear and he knew he didn’t want to be in here for too long.

 

With a series of hand signals that were well practiced, they cleared the first floor and moved up to the stairs, thankfully this house was built to code and the stairs were reinforced with concrete.

 

Once up there they discovered not two but three teenagers. Dom and Vince both made confused signals but got to work. Each taking one and heading down the stairs.

 

Once at the door, Dom handed off his person to Vince to help out and turned back to the upstairs bedroom to pull the last one out.

 

Turning with her arm over his shoulder they moved slowly to the stairs, on the landing halfway down the roof began to creak. “Not good, keep moving!” Dom told the girl right as the roof collapsed on top of him.

 

Brian heard the crack and watched in horror as the roof came down.  When he saw the girl come stumbling out without Dom his heart stopped, where was he? Why wasn’t he coming?  He handed his hose off to another team member and ran for the truck.

 

Leon was speaking frantically into the radio, trying to get Dom to respond but receiving nothing.

 

Brian grabbed his gear and started suiting up.

 

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”  Leon asked him.

 

“I’m going in. We have to get Dom out.”  Brian replied simply, securing the last of his gear.

 

“The hell you are!  The roof just came down.  That building isn’t safe.  We’ll get him out somehow but you aren’t going in there.  That’s an order Probie!”  Vince told him tersely.

 

“I’m going in.”  Brian told him and headed for the door.

 

It felt like walking into the hottest oven he’d ever felt, even with his gear on. He knew this was bad, he could barely see through the smoke and there was debris still falling from the roof.

 

He followed the sounds of Dom’s alert chirping from the direction of the staircase and he started yelling for the man, moving pieces of plaster and wooden beams out of his way as he climbed the steps.  He finally reached him collapsed on the landing.

 

“Dom!  Dom!”  He yelled shaking the Lieutenant’s arm, hoping for a response, when he got none he heaved the big man up, onto his feet.  He began to come around then.

 

“Dom!  You with me?  I can’t carry you. You’re too damn heavy. You’re gonna have to help me here.”  He grunted, half dragging the heavy man down the stairs.

 

Dom blinked into consciousness.

 

“Brian?” He frowned, knowing that voice, even if it was muffled.

 

His brain kick started and his feet began to move, the two working their way to the door.

 

He couldn’t see when they exited the house, the sun too bright and his head was spinning. He was going to collapse again, was going to lose consciousness again.

 

“Brian.” He managed to say softly after taking three steps out of the house, before promptly dropping to the grass of the front lawn.

 

Brian tried to control Dom’s fall as he collapsed again.

 

“Mia!  Hobbs!”  He screamed, calling them both over to take care of their fallen comrade.

 

Leon managed to look relieved and pissed at the same time.

 

“That was not okay Brian.  I’m going to have to tell the Captain, even if I am happy you saved Dom.” Leon told him in a serious tone.

 

“I’m sorry.  I couldn’t leave him in there.  It wasn’t right.”  Brian shrugged, taking his gear off.

 

“Get back on the hoses, we’ll talk about it later.”  Leon told him.

 

Brian nodded and headed back to his post, not leaving until the fire was put out.

 

Mia rushed to Dom’s side. “Don’t you be dead.” She grumbled, taking the mask off Dom’s face and replacing it with oxygen.

 

Hobbs took the man’s vitals and got to work preparing an injection of epinephrine to kick start Dom’s body into healing itself.

 

“He’s got a head wound.” Mia added checking the wound for depth and severity.

 

“We should bus him out.” Hobbs suggested. “He’ll need a CAT scan.”

 

Mia nodded and radioed it in, leaving the scene as soon as they were cleared to do so.

 

The rest of the team finished up at the scene. Everyone piled into the truck and headed to the hospital.  They had to check on their leader.

 

Mia was sitting in the waiting room when they arrived.

 

“How is he?” Leon asked the question on everyone’s mind as Brian came over and wrapped her in a hug.

 

Mia hugged Brian back. “He’s okay, they’re stitching up the head wound and he’s got a grade 2 concussion.” She told the group.

 

“He should be ready to come back to the house for rest in about half an hour.”

 

The team breathed a collective sigh of relief and hung around until Mia went back to wheel him out.  They all clapped when they saw him.

 

“Good thing you’ve got such a hard head boss, or that could have been disastrous.”  Vince teased the big man fondly.

 

“Yeah, yeah, get me out of this damn chair and to the house. I have paperwork to fill out.” The large man grumbled.

 

Mia swatted his shoulder gently and pushed him towards the exit.

 

“Alright everyone, back to the house, we’re still on the clock. Move.” She ordered.

 

“Yes Ma’am.”  Leon grinned with a jaunty salute jumping into the driver’s seat of the truck.

 

They bundled their Lieutenant into the truck and headed back to the house.  They all knew better than to treat the big man any different than before so they left him to himself, except for keeping a watchful eye on him.

 

Leon disappeared into the Captain’s office and Brian sighed as he sat down next to Dom and flicked on the TV hoping to catch a recap of the game before he likely lost his job for being insubordinate, again.

 

“What are you huffing about?” Dom asked Brian, not thinking well due to the medication he’d taken, he dropped his hand to Brian’s knee, giving it a gentle squeeze.

 

Brian shook his head.

 

“Leon told me not to come in after you.  I didn’t listen.  Actually told isn’t the right word.  He ordered me, and I ignored him.  He went to tell the Captain about it.  So I’m probably going to lose my job.  And I missed the 3rd period.”  Brian sighed in a rush.  

 

He didn’t regret his decision, he would make it again in a heartbeat, he’d saved Dom’s life.  That was what mattered to him, he just didn’t want to leave these people either.  He’d built friendships here, he was finally being accepted and maybe had found the family he’d always longed for.  To have that ripped away from him now would be devastating, but he would deal with it.

 

“You’re not going to get fired.” Dom slurred his words slightly, leaning onto Brian’s shoulder.

 

“You disobeyed but you saved your Lieutenant. The Cap will give you a written official warning. It’s fine we all have like 2 for a bunch of stuff.” He chuckled the last bit, eyes drooping shut, he wasn’t supposed to sleep for a good 3 more hours before it was safe.

 

“Hey.”  Brian shook his shoulder gently.

 

“Hey Dopey.  Gotta wake up man.  No sleeping yet.”  He said, shaking Dom’s shoulder gently to wake him up.  He was relieved to hear what Dom had said but the big man’s health came first.

 

“Don wanna stay wake.” Dom groaned, he rubbed his cheek against Brian’s shoulder. “Comfy.”

 

“I appreciate that you think my shoulder is a perfect pillow but you gotta wake up big guy.”  Brian told him, gently moving his head with his hand.

 

“Come on, you have paperwork to do.  We have to go over my evaluation.” His entreaties did nothing as Dom’s head nestled even more firmly onto his chest as he mumbled incoherently.

 

“Am I interrupting?”  Leon asked from behind the couch

 

Brian jumped.

 

“Captain wants to see you Brian.  I’ll take Dom babysitting duty.”

 

Brian nodded and made his way to the office knocking lightly on the door.

 

“Enter.” Captain Tanner called.

 

He waited for Brian to sit before speaking.

 

“You know what you did and you know why you’re here. Dom has had a lot of good stuff to say about you in his evaluations.” He started reading from some papers with Dom’s hand writing on them.

 

“O'Connor shows a great eye for detail and is an exceptionally quick learner, he is always prompt at the start of his shift and doesn’t protest when he has to stay back longer. He contributes to the maintenance and upkeep of the house with a diligence and concentration matched by no one else. O'Connor follows orders well now that the chain of order has been established. Once passed his final evaluation I strongly believe Brian O’Connor will be an invaluable member of team two and house 1327.”

 

Looking up from the paperwork Tanner rose an eyebrow.

 

“You’re either a damn good firefighter or you’re sleeping with the man, and since I know Dom is straight I have no choice but to write you a written warning and expect you understand the severity of your actions.”

 

Brian was shocked at what Dom had said about him.  He had no idea the man thought so highly of him.  It filled him with pride to know he’d done well in his eyes.

 

“I know sir.  Thank you.  It won’t happen again.”  Brian promised, taking the Captain’s nod as his dismissal and leaving the office.

 

Brian headed back out to the rec room where Leon was trying to keep a clingy Dom awake.

 

“Not having much luck either huh?  Why don’t you go get some sleep.  I’ll stay up with him, we have evaluation stuff to do anyway.”  Brian told him.

 

Leon grinned his thanks.

 

“Thanks kid.  See you in the morning hopefully.”  Brian nodded and sat down in Leon’s abandoned place.

 

“Dom.  Wake up Dom.”  He said gently.

 

“Brian.” Dom smiled. He liked that voice better than Leon’s.

 

“You’re comfier.” He smiled dopily and nuzzled his cheek on Brian’s shoulder again.

 

"I appreciate the compliment but you gotta get up. Come on." He heaved the big man up and dragged him to one of the tables they usually ate at, hopefully a less comfortable seat would keep Dom awake.

 

“No! Don’t move.” Dom pouted and sat obediently at the table, folding his arms on the surface and dropping his head onto them.

 

“So how’d it go?”

 

Brian smiled fondly at Dom's antics he was more than a little adorable like this.

 

"Well I'm not clearing out my locker so I'm not fired, I just got a stern talking to and another written warning. I also learned that you sir." He shook Dom gently again when he saw his eyelids drooping.

 

"Are a big softy." He teased

 

“Shh.” Dom smiled. “It’s cause you’re my favourite.” He admitted.

 

"Now I know you hit your head" Brian smiled his heart fluttering at the big man's words.

 

Dom smiled dopily. “Ask me tomorrow I’ll say the same.” He promised earnestly.

 

He reached out with one hand and touched Brian’s hair. “So soft.”

 

"Uh huh. " Brian answered skeptically. And then pulled Dom's hands away from his hair. It felt too good to have Dom touching him like this, he wanted to bask in it forever but he didn't want to take advantage of the situation. Dom was out of it right now and he didn't want to do anything the man would regret.

 

"Whoa there buddy. Come on let's have something to drink wake you up. We've got stuff to do." He put Dom's hand back in his lap and got up to pour them both a glass of juice.

 

He placed one in front of the Lieutenant and took a sip of the other.

 

"Drink up. We've got work to do." He smiled.

 

Dom sighed and sat up drinking his juice.

 

“Fine.” He sighed.

 

“Can you go into my office and get the file labeled “O’Connor?” He asked.

 

"You got it boss." Brian smiled and went off in the direction of Dom's office.

 

Brian had been in here a few times before, the walls and desk covered in pictures of Dom and Mia and the others from the house, a few classic cars and what had to be Dom's parents. It was a cozy, homey as an office could get, place.  He walked over to the file cabinet where he knew the personnel files were stored and took out his. It was tempting to open it and read what Dom and said about him but he refrained. He brought it back out to where Dom was slumped back over the table.

 

Dom flinched at the sound of the paper hitting the table, but quickly recovered.

 

“Thanks.” He yawned and picked up his pen. “Alright, lets see if I can read this, or even better, if I can write.”

 

Dom scribbled the day's date and answered the first two questions himself, not caring if Brian read over his shoulder and read the praise.

 

“Alright, how have you found your first month here at house 1327?” He asked.

 

"Interesting." Brian answered with a grin.

 

“I can’t accept one worded answers, you know that probie.” Dom told him, dryly. “Elaborate.”

 

"I've learned a lot of new things like to ignore instructions on bottles and listen to my Lieutenant instead.  I also feel like I'm finally starting to fit in and be accepted. Especially since I had my hair turned blue." Brian answered sarcastically

 

Dom gave Brian a mild bitchface. “Do you honestly want me to include that?” He asked.

 

“I will do it if that’s what you want your eval to say, but you might want to think about it.”

 

Brian laughed.

 

"No please don't. I actually have been learning a lot about the job and how to function as a unit though. And I do feel like I'm settling in with the team." Brian answered seriously this time

 

Dom nodded and wrote it down.

 

“How would you describe the welcome and acceptance you have been given by your team?” He asked, knowing this would be good.

 

"Warm and inviting." Brian answered with a smirk.

 

"They were kind enough to cook for me, displaying their varied culinary talents.  They even gave me some style tips. They've made me feel right at home." Brian answered.

 

Dom snorted a laugh and wrote it down.

 

“Here’s the fun one. How would you describe your leadership team? This includes your Captain, Lieutenant and Team Leader. Well that’s easy I’m two of those.” He chuckled.

 

Brian thought that one over. It was a hard question to answer especially to the man's face.

 

"Tough but fair." He finally answered.

 

"I've landed myself in some hot water occasionally but I've never felt mishandled. My Lieutenant has been a guide I can look to for help even when I knew I made a mistake I was always able to turn to him if I needed help. I couldn't ask for a better leader." Brian blushed as he finished.

 

Dom gave Brian a small smile. “Flattery won’t get you out of dish duty.” He teased.

 

Dom checked over the next few questions, they were all for him to answer.

 

“Okay, that’s done from your end, the rest is for me.” He told Brian around a yawn.

 

“I’m gonna put this back in my office and then I want to sleep, how much longer till this stupid concussion is subdued enough I can sleep?” He asked the blonde.

 

"Well it was worth a shot." Brian grinned playfully and then checked his watch.

 

"You've got another hour or so I'll stay up you. You wanna watch TV or play cards or video games?" He asked giving the older man a few options.

 

“Well, if your final eval goes well, which it will, we’re gonna be spending a lot of time together.” Dom shrugged. “Maybe we should get to know each other better? What’s the game you play with Mia? Twenty questions?”

 

Dom was hoping Danny’s advice was going to work, if he could figure out what Brian liked maybe he could take him out on a date/not date and see how things progress.

 

Brian tried not give Dom a funny look, he was being extremely friendly all of sudden.

 

“Yeah.  We could do that.  How about I take that back to your office and you think up your first question.”  Brian offered.

 

Dom nodded. “Alright.”

 

He watched Brian go, part of his mind focused completely on the sway of his hips and the movement of his ass in those uniform pants.

 

As soon as Brian was out of sight Dom had to think of his question, and fast.

 

Brian took his time returning the file trying to figure out how he was going to get through this without completely embarrassing himself.  He put the file back in the cabinet and took a deep breath, he could do this.  He was a mature adult completely capable of keeping his ridiculous crush under control.  Straightening his shoulders in determination he made his way back out to the rec room.

 

“Think we could get comfy on the couch without you zonking out completely, or do we still need the uncomfortable chair?”  He asked Dom with a grin.

 

“Couch, but if I end up sleeping on your shoulder, it’s your own fault.” Dom warned and gave what he hoped was a playful smile. He’d been told his smiles could come off as scary and vicious.

 

They moved to the couch and Dom was conscious to leave enough room between the two of them, even if he did want to lean on the blonde and feel his body heat and rest his head on the guy’s shoulder, it was pretty comfortable.

 

“Well you’re in luck.  I’ve been told I have a pretty comfortable shoulder.”  Brian told him as they settled themselves on the couch.  He was not flirting he was just being friends.  Friends slept on each other all the time right?

 

“Alright, first question’s yours, shoot.”  He told Dom.

 

“Alright, because I’m lame and I can’t think of anything else, Batman or Iron Man?” Dom asked. This was a true test to see if Brian would fit in with his family and friends.

 

Brian laughed.

 

“Man that’s a tough one, see I always liked Thor, with his hammer and the lightning and the whole evil brother thing that he had to deal with.  Plus he’s built as hell and he lives in a palace in outer space.  I mean come on.”  Brian answered trying to keep his fanboying to a minimum.

 

Dom snorted. “Trust you to pick one of the options that wasn’t even available.” He teased playfully.

 

“Alright, I’ll pay that, you picked Marvel so I guess we can still be friends.”

 

Dom shifted on the couch so that he was lounging more his shoulder and knee pressing against Brian’s in a casual friendly touch kind of way.

 

“Your question.”

 

“Alright since we’re going with nerdy fanboy things tonight.  Star Wars or Star Trek?”  He asked with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Star Trek. I mean, Star Wars is great and all if you can handle boring and repetitive. but Trek has the trinity I value the most, The heart, the brain and the soul.” He admitted.

 

“Also William Shatner, although Chris Pine and Karl Urban.” He added. “They’re really good in their roles, Karl especially. He’s the perfect Bones, I think.”

 

Dom blushed when he realized he’d just given away too much about his geekiness.

 

“Alright, Old school arcade or high end graphics and game play?”

 

Brian laughed, he himself liked both but leaned for the flash of Star Wars, but Dom was obviously passionate.

 

“I will agree with your points, but lightsabers man.  Come on.”

 

“I liked old school arcade games.  Well really I love pinball, but I do enjoy some Donkey Kong and pac man too.”  Brian chuckled.

 

“That’s not say I turn down things like Assassin’s Creed or Halo mind you.”

 

“How about you? Were you an arcade hoodlum back in the day?”

 

“Yeah, there’s this arcade over on 5th I still have the high score for Tekken.” Dom admitted. “I may or may not go and check once a month or so to see if someone’s beaten me.”

 

He laughed at himself softly, feeling ridiculous admitting that but he liked that he could be open with Brian, plus he was getting ideas on where to take him for a date.

 

“Alright, shall we step this up a notch?” He asked rhetorically.

 

Brian couldn’t contain his grin.  That was the very arcade he frequented as a kid and sometimes still as an adult.  He may or may not have been planning an attack on Dom’s highscore.

 

“Oh boy that sounds ominous.  But I’m game.  Lay it on me.”  He grinned.

 

Dom gave Brian a devious smirk.

 

“Don’t file for harassment. This is my usual first question for everyone when we get to this level of friendship. What was your first time like? Who, when, where, how?” He grinned, actually really interested in this.

 

“Wow.  You really go for the throat don’t you.”  Brian laughed awkwardly.

 

“My first time.”  He sighed.

 

“It was as awkward as most first times are, particularly because neither of us had any idea what we were doing.  His name was Aaron.  He was my first real boyfriend I guess you could call him, we didn’t really go out on dates, but we played football and surfed together.”  Brian smiled at the memory.

 

“We did it in the back seat of his car, parked on the beach one night, I was 16, he was a little older.  We’d been messing around together for a few months and just decided to go for it.  I let him top, though he was as clueless as I was, and I’ll spare you the gory details but it kind of sucked though he was sweet about it after.  We figured it out eventually though and had some good times together.  We broke up I guess you could say, when he transferred to a college in New York.  Last I heard he was a successful lawyer.” Brian shrugged blushing just slightly.

 

“I spilled my intimate details, you’ve gotta do the same.”  Brian told him.

 

Dom bit his bottom lip and avoided looking at Brian as he spoke. Having Brian in the back of the charger sounded like a really attractive idea.

 

“My first time. To be honest was Letty. I was 18 she was 16, I was just about to head off to the academy and she’d been interested in me for a while. I figured why not. I hadn’t really had much time to think about girls since my Mom passed away when I was 14 and it messed me up, then I was too busy, between working on cars and helping keep my family together and raising Mia, there just wasn’t enough time to flirt and ask a girl out, take her on dates and convince her to let me in her pants. And Letty wasn’t an option before then because of her age.”

 

He took a breath to continue.

 

“It wasn’t anything special, though I probably should have made more of an effort for Letty’s sake but it was in my room, in my bed when Dad was out with Mia. It was awkward, we laughed through some of it and in the end I got her to come, so I was pretty proud of myself.” he shrugged. “Not much more to say.”

 

Once finishing his story Dom realized it was his turn again. “You can’t just keep turning my questions back on me. You have to think of some too.” He demanded.

 

Brian laughed.

 

“But it’s so much easier that way.  And to be fair, that one deserved to be a you show me yours I’ll show you mine.  But fine.  Since we’re going there.  Have you ever done anything with a guy?”  He wanted to know if he even had a small chance with the man.

 

Dom stiffened next to Brian but forced himself to relax.

 

“I met a guy at a bar once, talked for a bit, danced. We got a bit buzzed and we kissed for like 3 seconds and went back to dancing and talking.” Dom admitted.

 

“It’s not that it was a bad experience, but I don’t think he was right for me. No fireworks like I was expecting.” He shrugged. “I mean, there’s nothing wrong with liking guys, I just never really found them appealing. There’s some aspects I find aesthetically pleasing but I think I’m gonna have to meet the right guy for anything to really happen.” Dom realized he’d been rambling.

 

“What I mean to say is I haven’t done much with guys, but I’m not ruling out the possibility, I just have to find the right guy to be worth it.”

 

Brian laughed and put a hand on Dom’s shoulder.

 

“Hey it’s cool.  I’m glad you were brave enough to branch out and try new things though.  And hey, if you ever do meet that special guy. I’d be happy to give you any advice or pointers you want.  That way your first time with a guy won't be as awful as mine was.”  Brian winked.  That was all a line of bullshit.  Of course he would help Dom but he would be so freaking jealous if he found a guy and it wasn’t Brian.

 

Dom leaned into Brian’s touch.

 

“Thanks for the offer, I can just imagine that conversation.” He rolled his eyes.

 

“You mean I don’t just close my eyes and hope for the best?” He asked sarcastically and laughed.

 

"Well you could try but if you want the guy to not be in pain I wouldn't recommend it." Brian told him.

 

Dom blushed. “Yeah, making it good for him will be my top priority.” He agreed and god if only Brian knew what he was thinking.

 

“Have you always been attracted to men? Or was there a time when you liked girls too?” The larger man asked.

 

"I'll tell you a secret. I kissed a girl once. I always knew I liked guys but I was at a party in highschool and I wanted to see what it was like.  It was okay. She was a nice girl and we're still friends, but yeah it wasn't for me." Brian laughed at the memory.

 

"What's the craziest place you've ever done it?" He asked.

 

“Define crazy?” He asked. “Because I’ve done it in a lot of strange and wonderful places.”

 

"Okay so one of each. Strangest and most wonderful or beautiful." Brian told him.

 

“Easy, most beautiful was Bora Bora. Little bungalow in the middle of the lagoon, out on the balcony that lead to the water. Warm sunny day, light breeze and the most beautiful native girl.” Dom sighed remembering fondly.

 

“Strangest place...” He had to think about that. “Well I am a member of the mile high club.” He admitted. “But that’s hardly strange,” He supposed.

 

“Strangest would probably be getting a blow job while waiting in line at the drive through for in’n’out burger.” He laughed and paused to think of his next question.

 

“Three turn ons and three turn offs.”

 

"Ooo good question." Brian grinned.

 

"Turn ons, let's see. I like a man that's strong. I enjoy a bit of manhandling at times and my man has to be able to do that for me. He's gotta be caring. I like a man who takes care of his family and friends. Spontaneity. I'm a pretty active guy. I like to get out and do things sometimes they’re on a whim. My guy needs to be able to keep up with me."

 

He stopped and thought about his next answer. He realized he'd pretty much described Dom but he was ignoring that.

 

"Turn offs, smoking that's a huge one for me. I won't kiss a guy that tastes like an ashtray. Plus their breath stinks." Brian ranted. "Rudeness. If you're a straight up dick I'm more likely to punch you in the face than let you any where near my ass. And indecisiveness. I like a man who knows what he wants and goes after it." Brian finished.

 

"How about you. What is the most important thing you look for in a partner and what would make you immediately say no way. One thing." Brian asked.

 

“I look for an equal.” Dom admitted. “Someone who matches me blow for blow, whether it’s verbal or physical. They have to keep up with me and they have to be able to make me see when I’m being an ass, not just let me walk all over them.”

 

He thought carefully about the next part.

 

“Lack of respect or loyalty really throws me off. If you can’t respect my family and if you can’t stay loyal to me I don’t want to know you. That’s not the kind of person I want in my life, let alone my bed.”

 

Brian nodded with Dom’s words.  He liked what he heard maybe a bit too much.  Dom really was the total package for him, he was a really good man and had killer looks and Brian felt himself slipping further and further down the hill.  He was half in love with the man already, this was not helping.

 

Brian decided to switch gears slightly.

 

“If you were trapped on a deserted island, and you could bring only one thing and one person, who, what and what would you do with them?”

 

“Oh man.” Dom chuckled. “That’s a tough one.” He admitted.

 

He had to think about that. “Probably Macgyver and I’d bring my survival pack. Or I don’t know a sewing kit. It’s Macgyver, he’d get us off the island.” Dom laughed.

 

“If you could have a threesome with any two other people in the world, alive or dead, who would it be?” Dom asked, defaulting back to his usual questions.

 

Brian chuckled at Dom’s answer, typical.

 

“Hmm a threesome with anyone?  Definitely that actor Vin Diesel, he’s hot as fuck like seriously, I’d let that man do almost anything to me and, the guy who plays Thor in the new movies, all that flowing blonde hair, and his accent.  Ugh teenage wank fantasies come to life?  Yes please.”  Brian answered, letting himself imagine being in the middle of those two.  He almost moaned aloud.  He was not mentioning the fact that Dom looked eerily like the first actor he’d named, he’d keep that one to himself.

 

“Favorite Position?”  He asked the big man, if they were going to stick with the sex questions so be it.

 

“Oh that’s difficult to say.” Dom replied, he relaxed further on the couch, leaning some of his weight on Brian, his head on the blonde’s shoulder as he moved and got comfortable.

 

“Doggy is probably the best, being able to just bend them over the closest surface.” He licked his lips and his mind brought up images of Brian’s pert ass in the shower. His cock twitched in his uniform pants.

 

“But it’s fun when they like being manhandled.” He continued, deliberately phrasing it that way to echo Brian’s turn ons. “Because then I can just pick them up, pin them between a wall and my body and show off.” He chuckled, hoping his flirting was working. Flirting with girls was so much easier than this.

 

Brian tried to shift discreetly in his seat attempting to cover his growing erection.  He’d caught Dom’s phrasing.  He couldn’t possibly be interested.  They couldn’t possibly be heading down that road, but fuck if the images he painted weren’t hot as hell.  Brian would give anything to have Dom bend him over the nearest surface, like the coffee table that was in front of them.  It would be so easy, and Dom having him against a wall, just pinning him there so he couldn’t get away, not that he’d want to anyway.  Brian was going to have to find a way to escape and take a cold shower if this kept up much longer.

 

“You didn’t ask a question that time big guy.”  He teased.

 

“One place you haven’t done it but want to.”  Brian asked, voice slightly deepened with arousal.  Maybe, just maybe he had a shot.  

 

“Sorry got distracted.” Dom teased back to Brian, voice also dropping lower.

 

He shifted a little more to get comfortable before turning his head to look at Brian’s reaction when he spoke.

 

“I’d love to get away with fucking someone in the showers here.” He spoke lowly, voice almost a purr as he tried to keep the volume down. “The hot water, having them pinned against the cold tiles...” He trailed off with a grin watching how Brian reacted.

 

Brian squirmed in his seat.  He couldn’t even pretend Dom’s words weren’t affecting him anymore.  Dom had to know what he was doing.  Had to know that the scenario he was describing was making Brian impossibly hard.  There was no way the older man didn’t realize what he was doing.

 

“Dom.”  He all but whined.

 

“You can’t.  You have no idea what you’re doing and I don’t know what you’re playing at but we can’t.  Not here.  Not now.”  He groaned, trying to alleviate the pressure in his too tight pants.

 

Dom liked the way Brian squirmed.

 

The whine made him smile, big and wide.

 

“I know we can’t.” He agreed. “I don’t think I’m ready for anything like that.” He admitted.

 

“Maybe, we could go out some time. Dinner and then something?” He offered, feeling kind of shy now that the tension and the playful mood had been replaced with this serious and nerve wracking situation. What if Brian said no?

 

Brian took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.  Was Dom seriously asking him out?

 

“I think...I think that might be something worth doing.” Brian answered.  

 

Dom let out a large breath of relief.

 

“Okay.” He nodded. “Okay good.” He smiled like an idiot at Brian for a few moments.

 

“I think I need to get some sleep. My head is killing me. Can I sleep now?” He asked the blonde.

 

He wanted to go to the locker room, either have a sneak wank and head to the bunks or take a cold shower and head to the bunks, either way he wanted bed.

 

Brian looked at the clock.

 

“Yeah you’re good.  I’m gonna go, take a shower, and then hit the bed.  Just so you know.”  Brian tried to find a tactful way to say he was sneaking off for a quick wank in the shower and that he didn’t think he could handle Dom being in there with him.  He hoped the big man was able to read between the lines.

 

Dom chuckled.

 

“Yeah okay. I might just head straight to sleep. I think I’ll pass out as soon as I lie down.” He admitted honestly.

  
“Have a nice shower.” He grinned as he stood up. “Try not to be too loud.” He teased and headed out towards the bunk room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY LOOK! HAVE A BONUS UPDATE!  
> To make up for the delay in chapter 4, here's 5 a whole week early :)
> 
> Warnings! Severe homophobic language and insults.

***

 

"No way. I appreciate that you all are interested but nope not here" Brian shook his head.

 

The team had a bit of downtime as the truck was being serviced and they were all lounging in rec room.

 

Letty Mia and Jesse had all decided they wanted a demonstration of Brian's skills, something to ease the boredom.

 

Brian laughed it off. He was not going to be convinced to swing around the pole at work.

 

"Please?" Mia pouted at him. "It'll be fun. Think of it as an alternative workout. You can teach Letty and I." she grinned at him.

 

Letty nodded.

 

"Yeah, C'mon Bri! Teach us your moves!" Letty grinned at him, a laugh in her smile.

 

"Guys. I love that you're so enthusiastic but I hardly think the Captain, or Dom for that matter would appreciate me swinging around on the pole mid-shift. I'm sorry. Maybe at an amateur night or something I'll show you." Brian told them, keeping to himself how much he really wouldn't mind showing off his skills for their Lieutenant.

 

"What's the fuss?" Leon and Jesse enquired entering the room fresh from their post workout shower.

 

"Brian won't show is his pole skills because he's scared Dom or the Cap will disapprove." Mia told them.

 

"Cap’s not on this shift and Dom's out with Vince getting a part for the truck. We're grounded until they get back anyway." Leon shrugged towards Brian. He wasn't trying to influence the guy one way or another, just told it like it was.

 

Brian looked around at his audience Mia and Letty were both giving him their best impressions of puppy dog eyes, Jesse looked mildly curious and Leon looked like he really couldn't care either way.

 

"Come on Brian. Please." Mia used her best pleading voice.

 

"OK fine. A quick demonstration because you asked so nicely." Brian sighed.

 

He walked over the shelf where his gear was an picked up his helmet.

 

"Just for you." He winked at Mia as he put it on and slipped into his performance attitude.

 

He started slow and simple walking around the pole just to get a feel for it and then he started just swinging around it at first. Slow and steady, then picking up speed. He climbed up and let himself spiral to the ground before grinding his way back up and starting some of his harder tricks, holding on with his hands as he walked up sideways until he was parallel to the floor, flipping upside down and hooking a leg around the pole extending his other and then spiraling around. He heared the girls cheering and catcalling but he ignored it as he prepared his dismount.

 

The garage door opened just as he was flipping back upright and with his legs splayed on either side spinning toward the floor. He wasn't even aware of the newcomers until he hit the ground.

 

Dom was certain Vince was wrong about the damn part they had to replace but he figured he'd let it go for now.

 

Looking up from the receipt he caught a glimpse of blue and then blonde under a helmet. Had they been called out?

 

No. Dom realized, swallowing thickly when he realized. No that was just Brian in his tight uniform pants and his helmet pole dancing like the expert he was.

 

The core strength needed for this must have been amazing. Dom's mind shifted to other uses of core strength, thought of other scenarios where Brian could be swinging on a pole.

 

Fuck.

 

Dom swallowed thickly, eyes not leaving Brian's body.

 

"The fuck?" Vince snarled. "What does he think this is? Lust on a Thursday night?"

 

"I'm concerned you know when gay night is at Lust." Dom teased.

 

"Of course. Know when to stay away." Vince shot back.

 

"Hey, faggot. You better be cleaning that pole once you're done with it."

 

All heads turned to them.

 

Brian got up off the floor and took the helmet off straightening his hair before turning to Vince.  He'd heard the nasty comment and fury burned in his stomach but he'd also heard much worse.  He could handle this.

 

"It's an insecure man that resorts to name calling and slander Vince." Brian said casually walking over and putting his helmet away.

 

"Insecure huh?" Vince asks rhetorically. "Funny, I'd call it hyper vigilance. I get it. You're part of the team now and we share things. But your cock and whatever afflictions that come with it, are not part of the deal."

 

Dom saw red, he was ashamed to call Vince his friend at moment.

 

"Shut your fucking mouth. You say another word against Brian and I'll shut it for you." He warned.

 

"Brian, I know I don't need to say it, but ignore this idiot." He spoke gently to Brian, hoping that the younger man knew Dom didn't think that way.

 

"Its okay Dom I know better than to listen to small minded jerks who are usually too insecure to admit to themselves that they're curious so they lash out." Brian said casually heading for a seat.

 

“Fuck off.” Vince snorted. “Why would anyone be curious about that?”

 

He glared at Brian. “Sticking your dick in shit or having something shoved up your ass isn’t something I’d ever be curious about. But hey, if you like getting stuck like a pig and probably squealing like one that’s fine. Just don’t bring it into the workplace and keep whatever you catch, to yourself.”

 

“Vince!” Dom growled. “Enough. One more word and I’ll-“

 

“You’ll what Dom? Pick this size queen over your best friend?”

 

Dom didn’t think, just lashed out. His fist connected with Vince’s jaw in a solid smack that sent the younger man sprawling onto the floor.

 

Vince stared at him shocked before his rage took over and he ran at Dom, tackling him around the middle and pulling him down.

 

“What is going on here!?” Captain Tanner, dressed in civilian clothing was standing in the door looking livid.

 

“My office, both of you. Now.”

 

Dom sighed and stood.

 

The Captain entered his office and turned toward his two wayward firefighters.

 

“Would one of you care to explain to me why I came to grab something from my office and I find the two of you brawling like children on the floor?”  He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

Both men remained silent.

 

The Captain waited.

 

“Perhaps sir, this is a situation that requires a written report. I don’t feel comfortable speaking freely with him still in the room.” Dom spoke.

 

The Captain nodded, glad to see his Lieutenant had some sense left.

 

Vince was left in the Captain’s office while Dom went to his own.

 

He was still angry at his friend for what he’d said about Brian. Brian hadn’t done anything wrong to provoke that kind of behaviour or attack. The smarting of his knuckles added to his frustration and he wrote down everything in detail, not even censoring the slurs like he usually would. This would teach Vince to speak without thinking.

 

When he was done he handed in his report.

 

“You’re dismissed, Lieutenant Toretto. I don’t want to see you for 3 days.”

 

Dom went to protest but the look on Tanner’s face stopped him.

 

“Sir.” Dom nodded and headed to the locker room to grab his things.

 

Brian watched the two men retreat to the captain’s office with a shocked look.  He couldn’t believe Dom had actually hit Vince.  The man had deserved it for being a first class asshole, but he still couldn’t believe it had actually happened.

 

He wanted to go after them, explain that he was the one who had started the whole mess but figured that might not actually be the best idea.  He waited until he saw Dom coming back out of the office for the second time and heading for the locker room with a disgusted look on his face.  

 

“Dom!” He called after him.

 

Dom flinched away from Brian’s voice and kept walking.

 

“Don’t.” Mia said softly to him. “Not when he has that look, let him go, you’ll see him tomorrow.” She explained.

 

“No you won’t.” Dom growled, slamming his locker shut with enough force it bounced back open again.

 

“I’m suspended. I’ll see you all in three days.” He shot harshly and stormed out of the room towards his car.

 

He needed to think and he needed to calm down.

 

“Shit.”  Brian cursed under his breath, and then walked off in the opposite direction toward the kitchen where everyone was silent in the rec room except for Hobbs who was happily making lunch.  Brian dropped onto a stool at the counter, and buried his head in his hands.

 

He’d never seen Dom like that, the man had been anger and power personified.  It sent a shiver down Brian’s spine and not in a good way.  He almost shrank from the memory of the big man slamming his locker and the fury in his eyes.

 

A few minutes later Vince came storming out of the office escorted by the Captain, they headed straight for the locker room and Tanner returned alone a few minutes after that.  Letty ran out after she saw him come back without Vince.

 

“Well now, how’s that for some fireworks.”  Hobbs said randomly, as he stirred the spaghetti sauce he was making for lunch.  He’d seen Brian’s little display on the pole and the altercation that followed.  In his opinion Vince deserved everything he got.  Brian just stared at him.

 

“It’s not funny Hobbs.”

 

“No, it’s not, but it’s not the end of the world either.  Vince deserved that punch in the face.  He shouldn't have said those things, to anybody. It has nothing to do with whether it was you or not, or what you were doing before hand.  If a man is talking like that, he’s got issues..”  Hobbs answered matter of factly.

 

Letty came back in the room looking shocked.

 

“Vince just got fired.”  She told them.  Brian groaned and dropped his head further into his hands as every head turned toward him.

 

***

 

Dom drove around for a bit and had to pull over when he got a call from Tanner.

 

He listened as Tanner explained Vince’s termination on behavioural and harassment terms.

 

When the call ended Dom went straight home, too angry to trust himself with driving any further.

 

He stomped his way into the house and threw himself down on the couch, hands over his face and he breathed.

 

He’d just gotten his best friend fired. He should have censored some of the remarks, should have just played it off as bullshit disagreements.

 

“Fuck!” He told no one particular.

 

With a sigh he figured he’d enjoy the time off and helped himself to a beer. Might as well spend his time being productive

 

Brian pulled up outside the address Mia had given him and turned the car off. He sighed, Mia had warned him not to come, told him to give the man some time to cool off. She'd told him to just leave it and talk to him when he got back to work but Brian just couldn't. He needed to apologize to thank Dom for standing up for him. He'd gotten into trouble and probably lost a friend over him. He needed to talk to him.

 

The memory of Dom's face as he stormed out of the locker room though gave him pause. What If he was still that angry? What would Brian do?

 

Screwing up his courage he got out of the car, headed up the walk and knocked on the door.

 

Dom was on his third beer when someone knocked on his door.

 

Groaning Dom stood up and shouted through the door. “Mia, you should know better than to - … Oh.” Dom was confused to see Brian on his doorstep.

 

“What do you want?” He snarled. How dare this little shit turn up on his doorstep. How dare he come here. How dare Mia give out his address.

 

How dare… fuck he needed to sit down.

 

Brian stared Dom was obviously well on his way to being drunk and he looked pissed.

 

"You okay" he asked concerned. Then shook his head obviously he wasn't.

 

"I came to see how you were doing and to thank you for standing up for me, and to apologize for the way everything happened. That was not what I wanted to happen. At all." His words spilled out in a rush.

 

“Of course not. Because it’s my fault for sticking up for you. I should have just told him to shut his mouth and made him move. Instead my stupid fucking feelings for you decide to get in the way. I didn’t censor my report. I should have. I should have played it down but instead I was too pissed on your behalf and I got him fucking fired and it’s all because of you.” He accused trying to shut his door, but Brian was already half inside.

 

“You need to leave.” He told the blonde. “I’m too angry and too drunk to be having this conversation.”

 

Brian was reeling over Dom's words. He had feelings for him? He was blaming it all on him? Brian had never asked for that. He'd had it under control. He would have dealt with Vince he didn't need Dom to come to his rescue.

 

"Don't turn this on me." Brian said.

 

"Look I'm sorry you got suspended and I'm sorry Vince lost his job. But I never asked for this. I never asked for any of it. So don't blame this shit on me." Brian stepped back and took a deep breath.

 

"Look I came here to thank you and I have so I'm just gonna leave. I'll see you at work." He finished

 

Dom watched him go and let out a noise of frustration as he slammed the door.

 

He grabbed his beer and downed the last of it before moving to the fridge for another.

 

Fuck Brian. Fuck him and his stupid blonde hair and his perfect ass.

 

Dom lay back on the couch fuming for a few minutes before he sighed heavily.

 

He was going to have to make this up to him. To apologise.

 

Brian was on his phone before he even got to his car.

 

"You were right. I should have left well enough alone. Are you free? I need to vent." Brian said as soon as he heard Mia pick up.

 

“Do we need an emergency BAB time?” She asked seriously. “I can organise one on short notice and we’re all kind of grounded since two of our team members are down and out for the count.”

 

She glanced around the room, Tanner had been in to explain what was happening. They were finishing their shift with two emergency replacements, the whole team had the next day off and then they would be doing Dom’s last day of suspension as a short team for small call outs only.

 

“You guys good for BAB?” She asked Hobbs and Letty who nodded instantly. “Yeah we can do it tonight.”

 

"Awesome I'll meet you at your place." Brian said starting his car. He'd left a few minutes before shift end so he could go talk to Dom.

 

He stopped by the liquor store and bought two bottles of wine before going to Mia's.

 

Mia, Hobbs and Letty went right to Mia's place afterwards expecting this kind of backlash when Brian said he was heading to see Dom.

 

They already had the tequila on ice in preparation.

 

"He's on his way." She told the room.

 

Brian knocked on the door and it opened right away and he was enveloped in a big by Hobbs.

 

"How did it go? Tell Uncle Hobbs all about it." The big man boomed drawing him further into the room.

 

"It went awfully. He's pissed. I need a drink," he said extricating himself and going to the counter to pour himself a glass of wine.

 

“Alright, everyone on the couch, booze is on the coffee table so we don’t have to move. Tell us every detail. We speak fluent pissed Dom we can translate for you.” Mia promised as she steered the blonde and his wine towards the comfy couches.

 

“We can also kick his ass if need be.” Letty added with a grin. Hobbs nodded his agreement.

 

Brian sat down and ran a hand through his hair, taking a big sip of from his glass.

 

He didn't know how he was going to tell them this but whatever.

 

"Well I showed up and he was well on his way to being drunk.  He asked me what the fuck I was doing there.  So I told him, I'd come to thank him and to apologize, and he just went off.  He basically told me that it was all my fault.  That he had feelings for me and he listened to those and got his best friend fired."  Brian sighed and fingered his hair again, it was a nervous gesture.

 

"Like what the fuck is that supposed to mean.  What the fuck am I supposed to do with that?"

 

“Feelings.” Hobbs snorted. “He makes it sound so pretentious. It’s his way of saying he’s accepted you, you’re part of the family now.” He explained. “He’s just upset and confused as to why he put you before Vince. It’s nothing on you it’s his idiocy.” The big man explained and put a comforting arm around Brian’s shoulder.

 

“Sounds like a typical Dom thing to do.” Mia sighed long sufferingly. “He’ll come around. Give him a week or so and he’ll apologise and things will go back the way they were.” She promised.

 

Brian sighed.

 

“I don’t know about that.  He was really mad.  And I can’t blame him, his best friend did get fired over me.”

 

“Vince got himself fired.” Letty shrugged. “He probably should have been fired a while ago. He’s good at his job but he’s a dick and we don’t need that. Besides I think Tanner made him resign and he can apply for other districts that way, so it’s not like his life is over.” She added casually.

 

Mia nodded. “I’m glad he’s out of the house. I probably should have reported a bunch of stuff I never did, so it’s been a long time coming.”

 

Hobbs tightened his grip on Brian’s shoulder just a fraction.

 

“If it comes down to you and Dom being at odds you know we’re not going to desert you. We’re your friend too and so are Jesse and Leon.”

 

Brian felt warm all over at his friend’s words.

 

“Thanks guys that means a lot.”  He told them.

 

He didn’t know how this was all going to play out between him and Dom but he wasn’t terribly hopeful for a good result.  He knew he should never have agreed to that little demonstration.

 

“Stop moping!” Letty teased. “You’re with us, and there’s plenty of wine and tequila and no one has to drive or even work tomorrow, drink and be merry!”

 

Mia laughed at her. “Hey what’s been happening with your Mystery man? We haven’t heard much about him for a while.” She hinted, just wanting to know  if any progress was being made, she’d given up hope he’d tell her who the guy is.

 

Brian finished his glass and poured himself another.

 

“Ah, well, I did learn that he’s curious about guys, he’s just waiting for the right one.”  He said, taking a large sip from his glass.

 

“What?” Mia half shrieked in excitement. Letty sat up straighter and leant forward.

 

“Don’t stop there, how did this happen? When did this happen? You had a conversation with him that was private and personal enough for Mr Straight as a ruler to admit he is curious? C’mon! Details!” Mia continued.

 

Hobbs turned on the couch so he was also facing Brian, the three of them eagerly waiting for Brian’s explanation.

 

Brian scratched the back of his neck and took another drink.  He was starting to feel pleasantly buzzed.

 

“It just sort of happened one night. We got to talking and it turned into twenty questions, and my oh my is he a dirty boy.  All he asked were sex questions.  He asked me about my first time and my turn ons and turn offs.  It was surreal.”  He sighed, remembering their little conversation.

 

“You played sexy 20 questions? Damn that’s progress from ‘He’ll punch me in the face’.” Letty teased him.

 

“What did you ask him?” Mia pushed. “I want all the sexy gory details.” She grinned.

 

“I wanna hear about both of your answers to these questions.” Hobbs laughed before turning to Brian to let him speak.

 

Brian finished his glass and poured another.

 

“Yeah I wasn’t expecting it either. I asked him if he’d ever been with a guy, thus the he’s looking for the right one.  I told him he could come to me for advice and he gave me this really odd look and told me that making it good for his partner would be his top priority.  I was definitely getting vibes that night.”  Brian sighed wistfully.  This was all shot to hell now.

 

“Oh my God I asked him about where he most wanted to do it and he started talking about holding the person against the wall in the shower.  And I know he was talking about me.  He was giving me that look you know.  And fuck just the idea of fuck.”  He stopped and took another drink.

 

“And then he asked me out, kind of.  Dom actually asked me out.”  He sighed.  The last part slipping out without him realizing it.

 

Brian blanched as he realized he'd spoken out loud.

 

“Wait?” Mia gawked at him. “Did you say Dom?”

 

“As in our Dom?” Letty added.

 

“Called it.” Hobbs shrugged.

 

“Why didn’t you tell us it was Dom?!?!” Mia added. “Did you think we wouldn’t have accepted you? Or sabotaged your relationship? Because we wouldn’t, Bri!”

 

"No, its not that it's. It...” he stuttered.

 

"It wasn't my story to tell about who or what Dom liked... and I barely knew any of you when it started... and I didn't want to add insult to injury with you Mia since you know everything and...." Brian babbled on the spot.

 

"Calm down Brian." Mia smiled at him. "We've had our doubts about Dom for a while." she admitted.

 

"Now. Lay it out for us nice and simple, from the start and we'll see what needs to be done to ensure you boys kiss and make up." Hobbs added. "Because you and Dom would make a fierce couple."

 

Letty and Mia nodded in agreement.

 

"Lay what out? Brian asked.

 

"I already told you. We had an awkward night of twenty questions where we almost flirted and he talked about holding me up against the wall of the shower and fucking my brains out. And then I told him I didn't know what he was playing at so we should stop before I came in my pants right there in the rec room." Brian sighed and took another sip of his drink.

 

"Then he asked me out to dinner or something which I agreed to but we never got a chance to schedule anything and now this happens and he probably hates me." Brian finished as he killed another glass and the first bottle of wine.

 

"Okay, now we know what to work with." Hobbs nodded to himself. "Dom's a simple man. It's an us and them situation with him. Everyone inside the family circle and everyone out. You're in the circle, Brian. There's no going back now, not when you're tied so deeply with everyone, except Vince." Hobbs paused.

 

"This is going to need time. We need to let Dom calm down, get back to himself and then we can start nudging him towards asking you out again."

 

"Yeah but Vince. Vince was his best friend. I can't imagine he's going to get over that easily." Brian countered.

 

"You'd be surprised." Mia replied dryly. "I don't think their friendship has been the same after I told Dom about how aggressively forward he was being with me." she admitted.

 

"But that's all for another day. It's time for more booze and laughing. Because I don't do pity parties." Letty interrupted.

 

"Sounds good to me." Brian agreed.

 

"Someone's got to have a good story come on. Isn't anyone having any luck in their love life?" He asked

 

Letty gave a secretive smile and Hobbs grinned.

 

"Owen and I have a very loud and vigorous make up session for our fight the other night." Hobbs sighed happily. "I'll spare you all the details."

 

"Oh no. You made me give details. Spill." Brian slurred. He'd live vicariously through the big man since he was in the middle of a dry spell.

 

Hobbs snorted a laugh.

 

“Alright, fine. Ladies as you know Owen and I have had our blocks in our relationship, especially in the bedroom.” The girls nodded while Hobbs turned to Brian to explain. “Owen is a proud man from a strong English family. His parents hate me. So our sex life has always been a bit vanilla. Amazing, but vanilla.”

 

“Oh god, what kind of deviant, kinky sex did you two get up to?” Letty laughed loudly, leaning in closer and cradling her drink.

 

Hobbs was glad he wasn’t a blusher.

 

“It wasn’t deviant.” He defended. “We just took the time to explore each other more thoroughly.” He grinned.

 

“You finally got him to rim you.” Mia gawked. “Well good for you. How was it?”

 

Hobbs rolled his eyes. “Good obviously. But I finally convinced him to top.”

 

Letty choked on her drink and ended up coughing all over herself.

 

When she recovered she gave him a huge high five.

 

Brian grinned.

 

"Good for you man," he clinked his glass against Hobbs. He generally preferred to bottom. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to top a big man like Hobbs, to make him squirm with his tongue and whine and writhe for more. To watch them fall apart as he pushed in, hitting all of the sweet spots. All that strength surrendered to him.

 

The man he was imagining though looked nothing like Hobbs looked quite a bit like their Lieutenant actually, but Brian wasn't going there. Not tonight. Maybe someday though.

 

Hobbs stared knowingly at Brian.

 

“I know that look.” He told Brian with a grin. “Just remember this is going to take time.” He said kindly and went back to his beer.

 

“Now, who’s up for a movie?”

 

“We are not watching The Notebook again.” Letty Vetoed.

 

“Seconded.” Mia agreed.

 

Hobbs rolled his eyes. “Fine, we’ll let Brian pick. I have a feeling it’ll be a Vin Diesel movie."

 

"Shut up." Brian pointed a playful finger at Hobbs and got up to pick the movie one with a lot of fast cars and a young blond heartthrob playing opposite his favorite muscled hunk.

 

He grinned as the credits rolled.

 

“My god is anyone else seeing some serious UST between Vin Diesel’s character and Paul Walker’s character?” Hobbs asked, fanning himself playfully.

 

“Yes. they keep staring at each other, this is not subtle at all.” Mia agreed.

 

“Is it just me or do they look like Dom and Brian?” Letty pointed out.

 

Mia frowned and then squinted and tilted her head to the side. “Holy shit! They totally do!”

 

Hobbs frowned and copied her, frowning and then turning his head to the side. “Wow. Okay that’s creepy.”

 

Brian put on his best innocent face.

 

“Huh.  I never noticed that before.”  He was not going to admit to the amount of wank fantasies he’d had that featured scenarios from this movie.  Including a few with him bent over that black Charger.

 

“Uh-huh.” Hobbs grinned. “Suuuure.” He replied and drink his beer.

 

Now that he was over the initial shock he could see it now. The way Dom and Brian clashed at the start, the hostility on Dom’s side obviously fueled by his confusion over his own attraction to Brian. Brian’s longing looks and the way they spoke to each other.

 

It all made sense now.

 

He couldn’t help but think if they had a different start, different time, different place things would have been a bit more smooth for them but that’s not a priority. Right now he had to figure out how to be Fairy Queen Mother for Dom and help him through his issues so that he wouldn’t destroy Brian.

 

He’d seen it happen in college. One openly gay guy, in tune with his sexuality and one questioning, the relationship that follows was toxic to the openly gay guy because the questioning one would put up emotional blocks, making their relationship purely physical and denying the mental intimacy. In the end it always goes the same way, someone gets brilliantly hurt both emotionally and physically and the other is left hollow for a long long time.

 

He did not want that happening to his boys.

 

***

  
  



	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the lateness of this chapter!  
> My Beta and I are currently on a road trip across the USA. Internet is sketchy. We are doing our best to update when we can. Even if it means camping in Starbucks and stealing their WIFI.
> 
> WARNINGS: There is an OC character death and some pretty upsetting and disturbing scenes that unfortunately do happen in real life.   
> More detailed explanation (with spoilers) in end notes.

 

Brian sat in his car outside the firehouse.  He was nervous about going in today.  It was their first day back since the blowup that had gotten Vince fired and Dom suspended.  He had no idea how things were going to go between them.  He took a deep breath and grabbed his bag.

 

“Good Morning Jesse.”  He called a greeting to the younger man who was huddled over a cup of coffee.  The kid nodded at him and Brian headed for the locker room to put his bag away.

 

Dom was standing at his locker.  Brian didn’t say anything, had no idea what to say to him, if he should say anything.

 

“Good Morning.”  He tried.

 

Dom looked up from his phone and stared blankly at Brian.

 

“Morning.” He nodded and closed his locker a little harsher than he meant to and left the room quickly.

 

Seeing Brian right now wasn’t a good idea. He was still embarrassed and pissed off about what he’d said in his angry drunken stupor.

 

He carried his laptop to the armchair he usually sat in and started browsing randomly.

 

His email instant messaging system popped up with an alert.

 

H> Have you apologised?

D> I don’t need to apologise. He shouldn’t have turned up at my door.

H> Wow. Way to be the bigger man here.

D> Fuck off. I don’t need your help on running my team.

H> This isn’t about the team.

D> Then it’s not your business.

H> Are you seriously questioning?

D> What did he tell you?

 

Dom looked up from his screen, anger on his face. If Brian told everyone about their private conversation and what he said when he was drunk then Brian was more of a dick than he expected.

 

H> That you had a round of 20 questions when you had your concussion and you admitted to being open to the idea. He also said that when you ranted at him the other day you said the word feelings and he’s ridiculously confused.

D> It’s none of your business. That was told to him in confidence. He shouldn’t have told you.

H> He did and now I know. Talk to me Dom. You know I don’t judge, especially not about this.

D> There’s nothing to talk about.

H> Let’s go to your office. We need to have a long talk.

D> Fine, but there’s nothing to talk about.

 

Dom sighed and slammed his laptop shut moving out of the room and down the hall to his office, waiting for Hobbs to join him.

 

Brian stared after Dom as he slammed the laptop shut. So that's how it was gonna be. Okay. He'd deal with it. He pretended not to be a little hurt by it all and headed to the gym. Maybe some time with the bag would help.

 

***

 

Hobbs knocked on the door of Dom's office and let himself in.

 

"So are we going to be able to have a civilized conversation?" He asked easily sitting down in one of the chairs in front of Dom's desk.

 

Dom gave Hobbs an unimpressed look.

 

“I don’t know exactly what Brian told you but there’s not much to talk about. I’ve been thinking he’s not so bad looking for a guy. Got the idea to try something, asked him to dinner and before it could happen he was in the middle of Vince getting fired. End of story.”

 

Hobbs didn’t look happy.

 

“Alright fine. Let’s ignore the Brian part of this picture and move onto the interested in guys part.”

 

“Guy. One. Just Brian, apparently.” The Lieutenant rolled his eyes.

 

“Why do you say that?”

 

“I went to a bar.”

 

“A bar? or a bar?” Hobbs stressed.

 

“A gay bar.” Dom replied shortly.

 

“Okay, now where getting somewhere, talk to Uncle Hobbs.”

 

Dom sighed and told him all about Danny.

 

***

 

“You okay there?” Mia asked. She’d spent the last 10 minutes watching Brian punch at the heavy bag like it had personally offended him.

 

Brian gave the bag another hard punch making it jiggle on its anchor.

 

"I’m just peachy." He answered shortly.

 

Mia sighed softly.

 

“Hobbs is talking with Dom. I think it’s about more than just what happened.” She told him carefully.

 

“You wanna go sit outside and relax? The sun looks nice and Leon and Letty are out there sprawled over a blanket napping. You wanna go nap in the sun like a fat lazy cat?” She asked him. “We can get Jesse to join and have a family bonding session.” She teased.

 

Brian groaned.  Just what he needed.  Hobbs talking to Dom.  Dom already hated him, he couldn’t imagine anything Hobbs said was going to change that.  

 

“Well, naptime is the best time.”  Brian answered softly with forced humor.  Mia didn’t deserve to be bitched at just because he was having a crap day.

 

“Just let me shower off.  I’ll meet you out there.”  He told her, unwrapping his hands and kissing her cheek as he passed.

 

He took a quick shower, just to wash the sweat off and then grabbed his sunglasses from his locker.  Hobbs and Dom were still holed up in the Lieutenant’s office, he could hear them both rumbling at each other.  He sighed and headed out to the grassy area in front of the house.  Leon and Letty were wrapped around each other, Jesse was laying on his stomach looking at a magazine and Mia was basking in the sunshine.  He plopped down next to her, stretching out on his back and laying his head in her lap.  Her fingers immediately found his hair and he smiled up at her.

 

“You’re too good to me.”  He told her.

 

“We know.” Jesse agreed. “But you’re family now.” He teased.

 

Mia swatted at him playfully.

 

“You’re having a family puppy pile and I’m not in the middle?” Hobbs’ voice sounded from the front doors.

 

“You were busy.” Mia shrugged.

 

“Yeah we were.” Dom agreed, feeling like an outsider in his own family.

 

“Come lie down and shut up.” Letty called out.

 

The two men found spaces to join, Hobbs situating himself in the middle and Dom moving to be between Jesse and Leon. He stole glances at Brian.

 

He knew he needed to talk to the blonde and soon but it would have to wait for a better time, somewhere less public.

 

“Have you and Brian put your big boy pants on and sorted shit out?” Leon asked eventually to Dom.

 

“Not completely.” Dom admitted, knowing Brian could hear.

 

“I think we need to have a talk and Hobbs’ has offered to be a mediator if needed.” He explained.

 

“Can we enjoy naptime first?  Or do you want to just get this out of the way?”  Brian asked, looking over at Dom.  He had a feeling he was about to either get his ass chewed out or get a let down.  Either way he was sure it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

 

“It can wait if you want to nap. Can we just schedule it in before end of shift sometime?” Dom offered trying to be reasonable. He really wanted to apologise and talk things through with Brian like he had Hobbs.

 

The Medic had told him he was an idiot and that he was excited for Dom’s discovery. He’d also gotten a big warning about being secretive and making Brian feel like he was a dirty little secret. He was also warned about making their relationship purely sexual.

 

Dom wasn’t looking forward to explaining to Tanner what was happening. The man would need to know so that he would do Brian’s assessments himself instead of Dom being accused of bias. they could still work together but would be required to report any changes in their working relationship directly to Tanner.

 

Dom half held his breath waiting to hear Brian’s response, hoping he wouldn’t put up a fuss.

 

Brian sighed.  He didn’t really want this hanging over him. He wouldn’t be able to relax until they sorted this, whatever it was out.

 

“Why don’t we just go now.  We both know if we wait we’ll get a call and it’ll take all day and then shift will be over and we’ll put it off.”  He said sitting up and waiting for Dom to move before getting to his feet.

 

Dom nodded.

 

“Okay. We’ll call if we need you.” He said to Hobbs.

 

He didn’t want to have the man going over it all again and offering his opinions.

 

He stood up and headed towards the house, half way into his office the siren went off.

 

“Are you kidding me?” Dom groaned.

 

“I guess we’ll have to wait until we get back.” He gave Brian an apologetic look.

 

Brian just shrugged and sighed.

 

“It would figure.  Lets go to work.”  They headed inside and geared up.

 

Brian got into the back of the truck while Dom got in front to radio central command and find out what the situation was.

 

“Suspicious fire reported. We don’t have many details. We’ll have to wing it when we get there.” He told everyone over the radios.

 

Turned out their fire was a dumpster fire down an alley that had spread to the wooden fence surrounding the businesses.

 

“Fucking teenagers.” Dom muttered, pissed off that his talk with Brian was interrupted because of this.

 

“Let’s get this done so we can be available for real work.” He told everyone, moving to the hoses.

 

They managed to stop the spread of the fence, getting the flames containing to the dumpster.

 

“Hey Dom,” Letty called. “Is it just me or is that Point looking a bit hot?” She asked, referring to the point of origin, the dumpster.

 

“Accelerant, probably teenagers being bored.” He replied, but she was right, something wasn’t right.

 

“Let’s douse this and find out what our fuel is.” He ordered, wanting to be back.

 

After half an hour they had it out and were blacking out.

 

“Let’s have a look shall we.” Dom pulled his helmet off and grabbed the edge of the metal, jumping up to look inside.

 

“Fuck.” He muttered.

 

“Dom?” Leon asked.

 

“Someone get on radio to central, request police and forensic teams. Everyone else I want you all in a perimeter 20 foot circle, no one inside.”

 

“Dom, what’s going on?” Jesse asked, confused.

 

“We got a body.”

 

Brian’s blood ran cold.  A body?  He couldn’t have heard right.  He couldn’t suppress the shiver that raced down his spine.  Leon radioed into central and told them the situation.  They were informed the police would be there in a few minutes.

 

Brian stayed back like Dom had ordered, watching as the police and a coroner’s van showed up and Dom went over to talk to the detectives.

 

"Toretto, you okay?" Officer Bilkins asked.

 

"I'm okay. No idea who the Vic is just got a call to the fire, put it out and checked to see what the fuel was and found it. If it's okay with you, I wanna get my team home and in a calmer environment. This is my probie’s first body and I know some of my juniors are gonna be affected."

 

Bilkins nodded. "Sure. Call me if anything comes up. I'll keep you informed."

 

"Cheers." Dom nodded.

 

"Everyone on the truck, we're heading home!"

 

Brian was standing close enough that he was able to see when the coroner’s team lifted the body out.

 

It was obviously a young person, burned so badly as to be unrecognizable.  Brian had to look away.  He was going to be sick.

 

He was never more grateful to hear Dom order them all back to the truck.

 

The team was silent on the ride back, everyone lost in their own head, when they got to the house Leon and Letty disappeared off together, Jesse dove for his laptop.  Brian put his gear away mechanically, trying to get the image out of his head.  He wasn’t succeeding.  He felt his stomach roiling and he ran for the bathroom.

 

He clung to the toilet, trembling as he tried to get his body back under control.

 

Dom watched as Brian’s colour went from normal, to white as a ghost then green as he ran from the room.

 

He moved to the rec room where mostly everyone was seated.

 

“I know not all of you are used to calls like the one we just had.” He told them. “Standard procedure applies here, if anyone needs to talk to someone about what happened or what they saw you can see either the Captain or myself and if we can’t help the house will organise for you to speak with someone. There is no judgement here. don’t feel like you need to keep how you feel quiet. Thank you for your time.”

 

He sat down in his arm chair again and opened up his laptop. He would wait until Brian signalled he was ready to talk, either about the body or about them.

 

Brian managed to get his stomach under control and stood up, grabbed his toothbrush, rinsed his mouth out and brushed his teeth, being absolutely meticulous in an effort to calm himself down.

 

He was still feeling a bit shaky as he walked into the rec room, it was much quieter than normal.  Dom was in his usual spot in the corner, playing on his laptop.  He knew the man probably wanted to have their talk but he just couldn’t right now.  He couldn’t talk about their situation after what he’d just seen.

 

He took a seat on the couch and hugged his knees to his chest, laying his head on them and staring blankly at the TV. He tried to turn his mind off, focus on anything else.

 

“You okay Bri?” Jesse asked him gently.

 

“Let him be Jess. If Brian needs to speak to someone he’ll approach them.” Dom called out, he’d been keeping a keen eye on the blonde since he came in, sneaking glanced over the top of his laptop screen.

 

“But.” Jesse tried to say.

 

“But nothing. Give him some space.”

 

Brian heard the conversation and glared at the older man.  Who the hell did he think he was.  Jesse was only trying to be nice.  Where did he get off telling him he couldn’t check on his friend.  Just because Dom had an issue with him didn’t give him the right to snap at the others.  And fuck him for not seeing that Brian could obviously use someone to talk to.  Brian knew he couldn’t go to Dom, the man would want to discuss everything else, and the atmosphere would be too charged, and he just couldn’t deal with that right now.

 

“I’m not Jesse, but thanks for asking.”  Brian told him getting up from the couch and heading for the bunk room.  He’d go curl up on his bed in peace where deep brown eyes weren’t boring holes into him.

 

Dom frowned at Brian.

 

What was his problem? Jesse should have known better, that after a call out like that you let everyone go and just have some time for themselves. If you needed comfort after a call out like that you went to someone. That was the rules. That was in the handbook on how to deal with this.

 

Brian could be a drama queen all he wanted, but if he seriously needed someone to talk to, or comfort, he could ask for it like the rest of them. Sulking wasn’t how you get help, asking was. Clear and precise communication.

 

Hobbs gave Dom a look as Brian headed out the room.

 

“What?” He asked.

 

“You going to see if he’s okay?”

 

“He can ask if he needs help. that’s the whole point of the rules. Clear Communication.”

 

Hobbs rolled his eyes. “Brian’s still a probie, you honestly expect him to have the handbook memorised like you?”

 

He had a point.

 

“Fine. I’ll go talk to him.” The Lieutenant huffed.

 

Brian heard someone enter the room and looked over his shoulder.  He hadn’t exactly curled up in his bed but he was lying on his side flipping through a magazine, trying to distract himself.  When he saw it was Dom he turned back around.  Was he going to get his ass chewed out now for snapping at Jesse? That was all he needed right now.

 

“Hey.” Dom said quietly.

 

“I think I should explain about before. You might have been in the bathroom when I made the announcement. After a turn out like that, standard operating procedure is to leave everyone alone. If you need help you ask. There’s no moping about waiting for someone to dote on you or whatever. If you need comfort you ask someone for what you need. That way there’s no miscommunication.” He explained.

 

“So this is me, as your Lieutenant asking my Probie who hasn’t had a call like this before. Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

 

Brian fought the urge to glare, he didn’t need patronizing right now, or whatever the fuck Dom was trying to do.

 

“I’m not ‘moping around waiting for someone to dote on me’ or whatever the fuck you called it. You just didn’t need to snap at Jesse for asking.”  Brian replied petulantly.

 

He felt all over the place.  He didn’t know if he wanted to scream, or hit something, or cry, or if he needed a hug, he just felt completely out of control and had no idea what to do about it.

 

“Jesse  should have known better than to approach you. It’s obvious you need something but you have to ask for it.” Dom tried to comfort him and explain.

 

“If you don’t feel comfortable asking me you can ask anyone else, but the point is you have to ask.”

 

He took a few steps back out of the room. “I’ll be in my office if you need anything, otherwise we’ll leave you be.”

 

He left the room and shut his office door behind him once he was inside. Dom let out a long sigh and sat behind his desk.

 

He’d seen a few bodies in his time but the initial shock of looking in expecting cardboard or wooden planks and finding what used to be a human was…Overwhelming.

 

Dom put his head in his hands and rubbed his face, trying to calm himself down. What he needed was a beer.

 

Brian watched him go and flopped back down on his bed, running his fingers through his hair.

 

“Fuck.”  He said to no one.

 

He had no idea what to make of that conversation.  One minute Dom is snapping at him the next he’s trying to be comforting but offering no help, and he just...Brian was lost.  He had no idea what to do with himself.

 

He got up and went in search of Mia, deciding he didn’t really want to be alone.  He found her in the truck bay, doing something in the ambulance with Hobbs.

 

“Hey, you got a minute?”  He asked.

 

Mia looked up from her hushed conversation with Hobbs.

 

“Hey, yeah you wanna go somewhere?” She asked him, noticing the look on his face. He looked like he could use a sedative and a good nights sleep. She kept it in mind. If need be she was not above taking Brian on as a patient under the Captain's permission.

 

She held out her hand for him to take if he wanted, she figured laying in the sun would be a good idea, help him get lazy and maybe have a nap.

 

Brian shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair before taking her hand.

 

“Yeah, I need to not be...here.”  He said looking around at the firehouse, all the trappings of their job.  He needed to get out of his head for awhile.

 

“I know the feeling.” She agreed and took him out onto the grass out the front.

 

“Come lie down, I’ll play with your hair again.” She grinned as he lay with his head on her lap.

 

“You wanna talk or just sit here quietly, I’m good either way.” She offered kindly. Whatever Brian needed right now she’d do what she could to facilitate it.

 

“I don’t know.”  Brian answered softly.

 

“I don’t know what to do or say.  I just…”  He let out a frustrated sigh.

 

“I want to scream, and throw things, and curl up in a ball, and not have seen what I saw.”  He finished quietly.

 

“I knew this was part of the job. I knew I would deal with things like this.  I should be able to handle it.  I should be able to move past it but I can’t.  I can’t get rid of it and I can’t move on and I feel like I should and I just…”  He trailed off, he didn’t know how to explain the rest.

 

“You know I still get like that after I lose someone.” Mia said softly. “You remember that day I came in and Dom just hugged me. I lost a patient before I even arrived and the kid just wouldn’t let his dead father go. I've had other days where I still remember the faces. I lost a boy, 14, from blood loss. His stupid friends and he were playing with a nail gun. It was bad. he died on the scene in my arms while I was trying to wrap all the nails sticking out of his chest.”

 

She paused and took a deep breath. “His face still haunts me. It’s just something that’ll always be there. All you can do is accept that you can’t save everyone and move on. Because you won’t help anyone in a mood like this. You can’t help anyone if you’re still hung up on not being able to help one."

 

Brian sighed.  Mia’s words made a lot of sense, but they were easier said than done.  He knew he would get over it, be able to deal with it.  It would just take time.

 

“When did you get so smart?”  He asked teasing softly.  He didn’t really feel mirthful but he wanted to break the silence.

 

"Believe it or not. Dom taught me that. Right after our mum died." Mia said softly.

 

"But let's not go there. We will sit here in the sun, and I'm going to stroke your hair and we're going to nap and when we wake up things will be better." She told him with a smile.

 

“Sounds like a plan to me.”  He said quietly, letting his eyes drift shut and the gentle motion of her fingers lull him to sleep.

 

At the end of shift Dom found Mia and Brian happily sleeping on the front grass.

 

"Hey." He said softly, nudging Mia awake.

 

"Oh hey. Time is it?"

 

"Shift ends in 10mins." He smiled.

 

"Brian okay?" He tried to keep his tone neutral but he knew his concern bled through.

 

“Brian is awake.” He said softly sitting up slowly and rubbing his face trying to wake up.

 

“I’m better thanks for asking.”  Brian said looking up at Dom before turning to Mia.

 

“Want to get some dinner? My treat for being such a great nap companion?”  He asked her, not really ready to be alone yet.

 

"Sure thing. I'll meet you at the diner in 20 or you wanna go together and drop me at my car after?" she asked him. She knew it was rude to make plans in front of him, especially since he wasn't invited, but Brian needed her and Dom would understand.

 

Dom felt awkward listening to them make plans. He wanted to talk to Brian. To see if he still wanted to get dinner sometime but obviously he had other priorities.

 

"See you guys tomorrow I guess." He said to no one in particular and headed back inside.

 

Brian knew it was rude to invite Mia out in front of Dom, but he just couldn’t deal with him right now.  They were in an unsteady position with each other and he had no idea how to deal with him.  So he just didn’t.

 

“Why don’t we meet there, that way we can both just head home after.” Brian told her as he stood and reached a hand down for her to take and helped her up.

 

As he walked back inside he started to feel bad about his brush off of Dom, maybe he should go apologize, see if he still wanted to talk.

 

He went to the Lieutenant’s office, Dom was behind the desk doing something on the computer.  He knocked on the doorjamb.

 

“Got a second?”  He asked awkwardly.

 

Dom looked up from his screen.

 

"Yeah, course. What can I do for you?" Dom asked. His palms were beginning to sweat and he was sure his heart was beating so hard Brian would be able to see it through his tight shirt.

 

He wished he knew how Brian had such an effect on him but by all accounts it didn't make sense.

 

He tried to remember the advice Hobbs had given him earlier that morning.  The last thing he wanted was to upset Brian anymore than he already had.

 

Brian took a deep breath and stepped into the office.  Being in such close proximity to the man was hell.  He felt his palms beginning to sweat and he swallowed hard.

 

“I’m sorry about earlier.  I guess I just wasn’t awake yet, it was rude to invite Mia out with you there, and I know you wanted to have a conversation.  We can still do that if you want.  I’ve got time, or I can call Mia and reschedule, she’ll understand, I know she will, or we can do it some other time.”  Brian had to force himself to stop the raging babble that was escaping him.

 

He lost his mind when he was around Dom, had no idea how to act anymore.

 

Dom gave Brian a small smile.

 

"I'm pretty hungry. Do you think Mia would mind if I took her spot at dinner tonight? We don't have to talk about anything if you don't want. We could just... Hang out?" He offered hoping he hadn't overstepped his bounds.

 

He really wanted everything to work. For his house to be a tight unit again and he couldn't do that if Brian hated him.

 

Brian scratched his arm.

 

“Yeah she’ll be ok with it.  I think she just agreed to go because she’s an amazing person and she knows I don’t want to be alone right now.”  He finished softly.

 

“But yeah.  Yeah we can do that, eat...food, and hang out.  Yeah.”  Brian nodded.  God, why couldn’t he form coherent sentences around the man anymore.

 

“I don’t think she’s left yet. I’ll just go find her and tell her the change in plans?”  He said uncertainly.

 

Dom tried to control his grin. Brian was adorable when he rambled.

 

"Yeah, let her know. I'll head to the diner and save us a booth." He suggested, standing and wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans.

 

When Brian left the room, Dom took a few calming breaths and tried not to smile so hard. He allowed himself one dorky fist pump before gathering his stuff and heading to the diner.

 

Brian tried not to grin like an idiot and throw up at the same time. He was actually going on a date-thing with Dom.

 

He found Mia in the locker room gathering her stuff.

 

"Hey Mia, I know we just made plans but." He fingered his hair.

 

"Dom... See I felt bad about inviting you out in front of him so I went to apologize and now we're going to dinner to hash things out and hang out I guess. I'm really sorry to bail on you like this but...." He looked up at her pleadingly willing hey to understand.

 

Mia snorted a laugh and rolled her eyes.

 

"Unacceptable Brian. I don't know how I can be friends with someone who makes an effort to fix things with my brother." She replied sarcastically.

 

"Go do your thing. Text me when you get home, I wanna hear all about it from both sides." she grinned.

 

Brian grinned and kissed her cheek.

 

"You're the best Mia." He told her grabbing his bag from his locker and heading for his car.

 

He arrived at the diner and parked.  He was nervous. He didn't know how he was going to handle this. He could even form an intelligent thought around the man, he wanted this to go well though. Maybe they could get past all of the crap that had happened and get back to where they were before.

 

With that thought he took a deep breath and got out of the car, walking into the restaurant.  He saw Dom in a booth in the back corner he went over and slid in across from the bigger man.

 

"Hey."

 

Dom looked up from the menu. He already knew what he'd order but it was something to do while waiting for Brian.

 

"Hey." He gave a small smile.

 

"I haven't ordered yet." He told the blonde handing over the menu for him to look at.

 

He felt ridiculous after saying it because of course he hadn't. Brian was only 5 minutes behind him, if that. And you don't ask someone out and then order without them. Idiot. He chastised himself.

 

Brian smiled.

 

"Awesome. Well I'm a regular so I know what I'm getting." Brian told him not even glancing at the menu

 

The waitress came over then and they placed their orders and then fell into an awkward silence.

 

"So... Mia said she used to come here all the time.  I used to hang out here with my friends before causing trouble at the arcade." Brian laughed a little nervously.

 

Dom nodded. “Yeah. I still have the high score in Tekken there... which you already knew that.” He trailed off feeling like an idiot.

 

It was quiet for a few moments. “So how are you liking the job? Still enjoying it?” He asked for lack of anything else. He had no idea what to say to Brian, what to talk about.

 

Brian stared blankly at him.

 

“Seriously?  That’s the question you go with?  Today?”  Brian asked, with a slight laugh.

 

“Umm yeah.  I’m still enjoying it.  Except you know for seeing my first dead body.”  He answered sarcastically.  His tone wasn’t angry, more teasing.

 

Dom had the decency to blush. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.” He admitted.

 

He wanted to say something else, trying to get the conversation flowing but it just wasn’t happening. Maybe he and Brian just weren’t supposed to work out? Maybe this was all just in his head. Maybe they just weren’t compatible.

 

“So you said you had the high score in Tekken at the arcade.”  Bria started, trying for anything to keep the conversation going, to drag it out of the awkward silence that had developed.

 

“What else did you do when you were a kid?”

 

Dom shrugged. “After mom died I spent a lot of time looking after Mia and Dad. He didn’t take it so well, obviously. I worked with him in the garage for a bit, built up a few cars to sell on for extra cash. Mia worked at this cafe store thing we owned but we couldn’t keep it up, not if she wanted to study to be a doctor so we sold it. The garage didn’t last too much longer after Dad died. I was too busy at the academy and Mia in college so we sold half of it to a family friend and he looks after it, runs it and stuff, we still get half the profits from it so it helps us both out.”

 

Dom realized he’d just blurted his life story. “Sorry. Short answer was I worked a lot.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “What about you? What was it like growing up with Earl O’Conner as your dad?”

 

Brian nodded along with Dom’s story.  It sounded like Dom had had some rough times growing up but his childhood hadn’t been horrible.

 

He sighed when Dom asked his question.

 

“That’s a tough question.”  He was saved from finishing his answer for a few minutes as their food arrived and they both took their first bites.

 

“Dad and I didn’t get along all that well.”  Brian finally answered softly.

 

“The firehouse was his real home and...you know what can we talk about something else.  This is way too heavy for right now. I’ve already had a crap day. I’d rather not make it worse.”  He said finally.

 

“So you built cars huh?  What kind?”  Brian asked desperately trying to change the tone of the conversation.

 

“Sure.” Dom nodded, feeling stupid for managing to pick a topic that made Brian so uncomfortable.

 

“All kinds, mostly good old fashion muscle. We did a couple of imports but I’m a muscle over import kind of guy.” He shrugged.

 

They ate solidly for a good few minutes before Dom changed the topic again.

 

“I’ve been thinking about talking to Tanner.” He started and took a drink of his water. “That a dog would be a really great morale booster. There’s stuff in the handbook about teaching pups to assist with rescues and to help people during times of stress, it could make things easier on people we help too. Do you think it’s a good idea?” He asked.

 

Brian couldn’t keep the grin off of his face.  He loved animals, dogs especially.  He’d always wanted one as a kid but his dad had always said no.  That no one was going to take care of it and it would be too much hassle.

 

“I think that’s the best idea I’ve heard all day.  Dogs have been used in therapy for things like stress relief and it would be great to have one to help with things like search and rescue.  Yes, I think it’s something we definitely should do.”  He smiled brightly.  

 

Dom beamed at Brian. “Great.” He nodded. “I’ll have to draft up a request and put a crap load of research into it but I think we’ll be able to get him to agree. Would you? I mean. If you wanted too, could you help me out with the research? If we show him how we’re going to train the puppy and make a roster for how he’ll be cared for and everything The Cap won’t be able to say no.” He bit his bottom lip hoping Brian would say yes, he seemed to know a lot about rescue dogs and Dom just wanted to spend more time with him.

 

Brian smiled sheepishly.  It would be an excellent opportunity to get to spend more time with the man, and maybe working closely together would help ease the tension between them.  Maybe they could make this work somehow.

 

“I’d like that.”  Brian answered and then blushed slightly realizing how his words could be taken.

 

“I mean, it sounds like a good idea. If we both get in on it and present him with a well researched proposal and show him that we’re serious about it.  He’ll go for it and it’ll go easier and faster with both of us.”  Brian trailed off, taking a sip of his soda to stop his babbling

 

Dom smiled happily and nodded. “Yeah that was my thinking too.” He agreed.

 

The table fell silent again.

 

Dom’s phone beeped with a text.

 

Mia> How’s it going?

 

Ignoring it Dom turned his attention back to Brian who seemed to get the same text is his facial expression was accurate.

 

“Mia?”  Brian asked with a chuckle noticing the look on Dom’s face.

 

“The ever meddlesome woman.” Dom agreed.

 

Their waitress came back with the check and gave the boys a smile before heading off.

 

Dom checked the time. “Oh wow.” He hadn’t realised it had been three hours of awkward stunted conversation and eating.

 

“It’s getting kind of late. Getting up at 4 is the only down side to day shift.” He teased.

 

Brian reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet, tossing a few notes onto the table before replacing it.

 

“Yeah, that part does kind of suck, but at least we get to see the sun.  Night shift doesn’t get that.”

 

Dom chuckled putting down some more cash for their meal.

 

“Yeah. You looked comfortable sleeping in the sun today. Like a kitten.” Dom teased and hoped Brian wouldn’t take it in a bad way.

 

Brian gave Dom a funny look, he wasn’t exactly sure what to make of that comment.

 

“Umm okay, thanks?”  He tried, before sliding out of the booth and standing.

 

“Well um, thanks for dinner, and I’ll see you tomorrow then.”  Brian said, standing awkwardly by the table.

 

Dom nodded.

 

“I can walk you to your car if you like?” He offered and realized how awkward that sounded.

 

“Sorry. I didn’t. I’m used to having dinner with Mia and well women. It’s not that I don’t think you could look after yourself. I’m certain you could I just. Sorry. Forget I even spoke.” Dom sighed, putting a hand over his face. Wow. Way to fail epically Dom.

 

Brian smiled gently.

 

Dom awkwardly flailing for words was quite possibly the most adorable thing he’d ever seen.   He could see the slight pink tinge rising on the big man’s ears and Brian decided to take pity on him and not call him out on it.

 

“Thanks for the offer, but some other time maybe.”  Brian teased and then turned for the door, walking out with Dom and heading to their cars in an awkward silence.

 

“Well see ya.”  Brian told him when they parted to go to their separate vehicles.

 

“See ya tomorrow.” Dom called out and got into the Charger. Sitting in the driver’s seat for a good few minutes, banging his head on the steering wheel and cursing himself.

 

That was the most awkward failed date he’d ever been on. With a sigh he started the car and headed home.

 

Tomorrow was going to be a tough day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spoilers: The team unexpectedly find a body during a call. Everyone is shaken up about it, and the team have to deal with the shock and aftermath of a violent death.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WE KNOW THIS IS LATE! We're sorry! Please follow the link below to the reasons why this is late. It's also something special for all our readers, so please enjoy and participate! Link is in end notes.

***

 

Brian sat in his car, once again dreading going in to the firehouse.  This was becoming a habit and he was not ok with it.

 

Brian had gotten a full interrogation from Mia when he’d gotten home and no amount of deflection had satisfied her, she hadn’t stopped until she’d bullied the whole awkward story from him.  It had been one of the worst sort of dates he’d ever been on, a more painfully awkward experience he didn’t think he’d ever had.  

 

He sighed.  Today would definitely be interesting he thought to himself as he got out of his car and headed inside.

 

Hobbs caught him inside the door.

 

“So Mia told me about your psuedo date last night.  How did it go?”  He asked kindly.

 

Brian sighed, news traveled fast in this circle.

 

“It was awkward and horrible and I don’t want to talk about it.”  He told his friend.

 

“Aww I’m sorry to hear that.  Give it time.”  Hobbs advised, placing a supportive hand on the blonde’s shoulder.

 

“And remember you can always come talk to me.  About anything.”  Hobbs winked.

 

“Thanks Hobbs.”  Brian responded tiredly before heading to the locker room.   Dom was in there putting his stuff away.  

 

“Hey.” Dom greeted Brian with a small smile.

 

He’d stayed up half the night texting with Mia about the whole failed date thing.

 

She gave him some encouraging advice but he didn’t think it was going to work.

 

Dom just decided he’d wait for Brian to bring it up and give him space until he decided he wanted to speak with Dom about maybe trying again.

 

“Morning.”  Brian greeted back.

 

“Get home alright?”  He asked and then cursed himself. What a stupid thing to say.  Of course he had, he was a grown man, and he was here this morning so he was obviously fine.

 

“Yeah, little bit of traffic, but it’s LA.” Dom tried for a light and teasing tone.

 

“How was the rest of your evening?” He asked, feeling stupid afterward.

 

“It was good.  Talked to Mia, she wouldn’t give up without a full interrogation.  Then I went to sleep, now I’m here.”  Brian gave him a full rundown and then lapsed into silence fiddling with the stuff in his locker.

 

“Well um, I’m gonna go...do something in the rec room.”  he told Dom, not sure of what else to say.

 

“Oh. Sure. Yeah I’ll see you in there.” Dom nodded and closed his locker, heading directly to his office.

 

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so awkward around anyone.

 

“You alright, Toretto?” Tanner asked as he saw Dom sigh deeply.

 

“Yes, sir.” Dom nodded.

 

“And things with the Probie?”

 

“They’re good sir, he’s fitting in well and without Vince here we haven’t had any issues. I think though maybe you should offer him someone to talk too about yesterday, it was his first body and he took it pretty hard.”

 

“I’ll speak with him today when I have a chance..” Tanner nodded.

 

Dom gave him a small tight lipped smile and slipped inside his office.

 

Brian sat down on the couch in the rec room and mentally berated himself for that idiotic conversation that had just taken place.  Really, he couldn’t think of anything more interesting to say?  

 

Brian saw Jesse sitting at one of the tables and went over to join him.

 

“Whatcha working on Jess?”  He asked the younger man who was putzing away on his computer.

 

“Nothing really just playing this game.”  He spent the next few minutes explaining what was going on and how it worked, before long Brian had pulled the chair up close and was offering him opinions and advice.

 

Dom spent a good half of the morning filling out the paperwork from yesterday and researching the rescue dog training, Brian suggested last night over dinner.

 

It was really interesting stuff and he was getting more and more excited for bringing in a pup to the house. It would be good for all of them he thought.

 

The decision he had in front of him was what breed and what training method.

 

With a groan he paused to rub his hands over his face.

 

He needed to get out of the office. Gathering his laptop, Dom made his way to the rec room to continue his work.

 

Brian looked over when he saw Dom come into the room, but didn’t otherwise pay him much attention, until Jesse died for the thousandth time in the game and he needed to stretch.   He walked over to where Dom was sitting and decided to attempt a conversation.  Maybe it would go better this time.

 

“How’s it going?”  That was safe.  He asked,

 

Dom gave Brian a small smile. “It’s going. This research is kicking my ass.” He admitted.

 

“Trying to figure out what breed and what kind of training is making my head hurt.” He kept his voice down because he wanted this to be a surprise for the rest of the house and he didn’t want to get their hopes up only to have Tanner say no.

 

Brian hummed thoughtfully as he pondered the issue.

 

"Well I think a lab might be a good bet. They're a good size really smart and extremely friendly. Training is going to be the most difficult to decide on. What have you got so far." He asked scooting closer so he could see.

 

Dom was very aware of the close proximity between Brian and himself.

 

"Ugh. To be honest I just have a bunch of terms I'm not 100% sure on. I was going to look them all up first and then. Do an applicable/not applicable list for what we need them to be able to do."

 

He turned his head and tried not to stare at Brian's lips as he spoke.

 

Brian nodded.

 

"OK that sounds like a good plan. You want me to help or do you want to just go over the stuff once you've made your list?" He asked easily.

 

"Do you want to help?" Dom offered. "It's cool either way, but I'd appreciate it." He gave the blonde a small smile and was secretly thrilled they could actually have a normal conversation without it getting weird.

 

Brian grinned.

 

"Yeah sure. Let me grab my laptop." He got up and retrieved his computer from the table and sat back down next to Dom.

 

"OK where do you want to start?"

 

Dom handed him the list and they split it up and got to work. As they worked they fell into a companionable silence broken by occasional discussions about whether something would work or not.

 

Brian smiled as he worked it was nice to be able to sit and spend time with Dom like this. He'd hoped things would have gone better on their date-thing but after the disaster that that had been he wondered if they'd ever be able to be around each other at all. Maybe now they'd at least have a chance at being friends

 

Dom enjoyed working with Brian. He always had something valuable to add to the conversation and his points were different to Dom's meaning they got two perspectives on all the information.

 

He wondered if they'd be able to move past this weird work/friend kind of relationship and move onto something more romantic or sexual. Not that Dom wanted sexual right away. He just wanted to be more than friends, wanted to have that connection with Brian, to see where it would lead.

 

They made it to lunch without a call and Dom was grateful for the uninterrupted study session.

 

Hobbs had cooked again and Dom's stomach rumbled appreciatively.

 

Hobbs called them all to lunch and Brian grinned. His stomach rumbling in agreement.

 

"After you Lieutenant." He teased as the got up and headed into the kitchen.

 

"Hobbs when are you going to leave Owen and marry me. I promise I'll be very good to you if you cook like this all the time." Brian teased the big man keeping up their running joke.

 

Hobbs snorted a laugh. "I'll tell Owen you said that. He'll probably challenge you to a duel or something. He's very British like that." the large man teased.

 

"Besides, Don't be greedy." He nodded towards Dom with a small grin.

 

Dom only caught half of the conversation so paid it little attention.

 

"How is Owen?" He asked "I haven't seen him pop in for a few weeks, trouble in paradise?" He teased.

 

"He's been busy. There's talk they want him back in London for a few weeks to consult on a planning mission."

 

"Still working for the queen then?" Leon asked shoveling his mouth full of Hobbs delicious food.

 

"Her army at least." Hobbs laughed.

 

Brian laughed at Hobbs response and gave him a salute before taking his plate into a table and digging in.

 

"Owen's in the army?" He asked. He hadn't known that.

 

"That must be difficult for you guys if he's between two countries a lot?" He asked.

 

"He's slowed things down since he moved here. Usually does long distance consulting work. He's a brilliant strategist." Hobbs was practically Sighing.

 

Dom laughed. "Still can't figure out if you’re with him for his body or his brain."

 

"Both." Hobbs smiled dreamily. "Especially that tongue."

 

"Dude." Leon pouted.

 

"Sorry. No details at the table." Hobbs agreed.

 

The siren rang.

 

"Team two. Kitten in distress. Rescue. Code three."

 

"Haven't had one of these in a while." Jesse was abounding in his seat with excitement.

 

"Alright finish your food and lets go." Dom ordered scoffing down his last bite and heading to the truck.

 

Brian finished his last bite and followed them to the truck.

 

"Seriously we rescue kittens? That's a thing that actually happens?" He asked as they headed off.

 

Brian finished his last bite and followed them to the truck.

 

"Seriously we rescue kittens? That's a thing that actually happens?" He asked as they headed off.

 

Dom chuckled.

 

“It happens, very rarely but we get to do it.”

 

They drove with the lights and sirens off, code 3 didn’t require them.

 

When they arrived on scene an elderly lady was out the front of a nice looking house talking to her neighbour.

 

“Thank you for coming, they seem to be stuck in here.” she gestured to the spouting on her roof.

 

Dom could hear the tiny frightened mewing of the kittens inside.

 

“Alright, Ma’am we’re going to have to cut your spouting to get them out. I need you to sign to give us permission to do it. Is that alright?” He asked her.

 

“Of course, where do I sign?”

 

Dom found the wilful destruction of property in the line of rescue form and handed it to her to read.

 

She signed quickly and stood back to watch while Leon used a power saw to cut the pipe enough to put a small camera up.

 

“Okay we can cut about here and I’ll be able to reach in and pull them out.” Dom said marking the pipe with a pencil.

 

“Let’s do this.”

 

Brian stood next to Leon as he cut the spouting open. He could hear them crying inside of the drainpipe. The crying got louder as Leon started the saw. He looked inside after the pipe fell away and saw a myriad of furry little faces looking back.

 

He immediately felt that overwhelming warmth that one gets when in the vicinity of baby animals.

 

Dom cooed to them as he reached in and pulled them out one at a time. They handed them down assembly line style. Brian couldn't help stopping to cuddle each one as it passed through his hands.  When they pulled the last one out Brian turned to the Lieutenant.

 

"What are they gonna do with them?" He asked. He'd decided he just had to have one. He'd always wanted a pet and they were too adorable to pass up.

 

“Usually we take ‘em back to the station, clean them up, check them over. If anyone wants one they can have them otherwise we take them to a no kill shelter down near Pasadena.” Dom shrugged.

 

“Why? You want one?” He teased with a grin, eyeing off a grey fluff ball with bright blue eyes as it rolled around with it’s friends, mewling happily.

 

"I was thinking about it." Brian told him looking at an inky black one that was prowling around the edges of the group keeping an eye on his brothers and sisters mewling insistently.

 

Jesse had found a basket to put them all in and was sitting by it petting them all and cooing to them.

 

"Found one you like Jess?"

 

Jesse's eyes were starry as he looked up at Brian.

 

"I can't pick just one. I want them all."

 

"There's seven of them Jess. That's a little ambitious." Brian laughed as they loaded the basket into the truck.

 

“I have enough love for seven.” Jesse pouted.

 

Dom chuckled at him.

 

“Let’s get them back to the station and make sure everyone’s okay. Then we can look at who gets what.” The Lieutenant smiled fondly.

 

Jesse had so much love to give the world. One kitten at a time.

 

Back at the station everyone got changed out of the full gear and Dom carried the basket of kittens into the locker room and towards the shower.

 

He put them gently down on the tiles and used an old wash cloth to clean them down as much as possible, checking them for breaks or tender spots.

 

Brian followed Dom into the shower and helped him clean the babies off. Drying them gently with a soft towel after the older man looked them over.

 

"How do they look?" He asked wiping down a mewling orange and white one.

 

“They look fine, I don’t think anyone broke anything but it will be a good idea to take them all to the shelter in Pasadena, get them checked them over properly before anyone adopts one. They can give them all their shots and whatever else they need to do.” Dom replied, playfully tickling the grey one with blue eyes. The kitten batted happily at his hand trying to catch his fingers.

 

Dom gave Brian a kind smile.

 

“That would be nice. Do you mind riding with me in the charger? I’d feel better if I knew the kittens were being held instead of the box possibly sliding around the back seat.” He asked. “I can drop you off back here after,” He offered, the idea of dropping Brian off home and picking him up in the morning was on his tongue, he would offer that to his other friends, but he didn’t know  if it was okay with Brian.

 

Brian felt his heart stutter.  Dom had a Charger, his mind immediately shot to the fantasies he’d had about the man and a car like that.

 

“Yeah.  That would be fine.  I’ll even spring for dinner since you’re driving.”  Brian tried, maybe they could try again and have a less awkward evening.

 

“You asking me to dinner?” Dom tried to make his tone playful and give an easy grin, he hoped he succeeded. “Because I’d like that.” He felt his cheeks go red.

 

Brian blushed, Dom really wanted to go out with him again.

 

“Then yes, I am.”  Brian tried to sound more smooth than he felt, as he grinned.

 

Dom’s grin was so wide he was worried he was showing too many teeth and looked like a shark.

 

“Awesome.” He nodded and was nibbled on by the grey kitten.

 

“Excuse me.” He said to the fluff ball. “That’s not yours to bite.” he indicated his thumb. The kitten looked up at him with big blue eyes, pouting at having his fun spoiled.

 

“Fuck.” Dom sighed. “Looks like I’m keeping this one. How can I say no to that face?” He asked, not looking away from the kitten.

 

Brian laughed, “Well how could you possibly say no to blue eyes like that.”  He teased.  Blushing slightly at the implication he’d inadvertently made.

 

Brian reached down to the black and gray one that had licked all of the others checking on them, and then wandered over to sniff at his ankles and butt up against his hand.

 

“Looks like I’ve been chosen.”  He teased back, scooping up the cat and scratching it gently.

 

Dom smiled. The black and grey kitten was purring and seemed to love Brian already.

 

“Seems you have.” He smiled.

 

“Lets get the little ones into the rec room, I’m sure Jesse’s set up a little play area for them, we can give them some water and see if there’s any food for them.”

 

Jesse bounded over to them when he saw them with the basket.

 

“Are they ok?  Can I play with them?  I built them a house and Hobbs helped me get together some food for them.”  He babbled as he followed the basket as Dom set it on the floor.

 

Dom chuckled.

 

“Calm down, they all look okay. Brian and I are taking them to the shelter tonight to get checked over, but we’ll let them know to vaccinate and desex whichever ones are coming home with one of us.”

 

He gently eased the kittens out of the basket and onto the floor.

 

“The black and grey one is Brian’s and the grey with blue eyes is mine.” He called dibbs.

 

Brian grinned and sat down on the floor by the house made of cardboard boxes that Jesse had rigged up.  He watched the kittens fall all over each other and bump around as they explored mewing and purring whenever someone came over and cuddled them.

 

They were lucky enough to not get anymore calls and before they knew it night shift was coming in.  Brian looked up from cuddling the orange kitten in one hand and Dom’s gray one in the other to find the big man standing over him with their bags.

 

“Time to go already?”  

 

“Time to go, be careful you’ll get attached.” Dom teased and carefully bundled the kittens into the large cardboard box with a towel on the bottom. It didn’t have a lid as the kittens weren’t old enough to climb or jump that far.

 

“You still good for dinner after?” He asked, hoping Brian hadn’t changed his mind.

 

“Too late, you’re going to have to let me come over just to visit him.”  Brian teased.

 

“And of course I’m still good for dinner.”  He told him carrying the box of precious cargo out to the Charger.  Dom took the box and held it while Brian got settled in the passenger side and then gently set it in his lap.  Brian held it tight as Dom put their bags in the trunk.

 

“I’m so good for dinner I’ll even let you choose the restaurant.” He said playfully.

 

Dom laughed. “That’s dangerous. I could take you anywhere.” He teased as he started up the car.

 

The purr of the engine seemed to either scare or excite the kittens, Dom couldn’t tell which. “Oops.” He grinned and pulled out of the parking lot a lot more subdued than he usually would.

 

The drive to the shelter wasn’t too long, but traffic always had a way of slowing you down.

 

“Lieutenant, good to see you again!” Han the vet on duty smiled as Dom and Brian entered through the front entrance.

 

“Evening Han.”

 

“What have you got for me?”

 

“Special delivery, all need to be checked over, but 3 need to be fixed up with a going home package.”

 

“All for you?” Han asked looking surprised.

 

“Grey with blue is for me. Black and grey,” He pointed to Brian’s kitten. “For my friend here and Jesse has laid claim to the ginger.”

 

Han grinned.

 

“Alright, leave them with me. I’ll email you when they’re ready to go home.”

 

“Thanks Han.”

 

“Anytime. Have an nice night!” He called after them.

 

Brian grinned as they walked back out to the car.

 

“This is a fantastic car.”  He sighed, stroking his fingers across the hood as he walked to the passenger side.

 

“Did you build her?”

 

“Yeah, Dad and I did. Took a long time. Maybe I’ll let you drive her one day.” Dom smirked unlocking the doors and climbed inside.

 

“So what do you feel like? Thai? Indian? Italian?” He offered, on the look out for places he knew did decent food.

 

“Oh really, gonna let me behind the wheel huh?  Better watch out, I might never get out.”  Brian teased.

 

“I don’t care where we eat.  I’ll eat pretty much anything.  You choose, take me somewhere decent though.  I demand better quality than a diner for a second date you know.”  He teased playfully.  He tried not to wince as the words came out of his mouth, what if Dom didn’t consider this a date.

 

“Oh man, such standards already for a second date? Third’s gonna need me to make a reservation isn’t it?” Dom teased.

 

He took Brian to a tiki bar looking place on the beach that boasted the best shrimp in LA.

 

Dom got out the car and held the door for Brian. “After you sir.” He bowed playfully, cracking a smile and holding back his laughter.

 

“Well if you expect to get anything out of me at the end of the night, then yes, I demand quality.”  Brian teased.  He knew they were no where near ready for anything of the sort, and he hoped Dom didn’t take his comment the wrong way.

 

Dom rolled his eyes. "Like I would take you to a dive. Ye of little faith." He smirked and moved to sit by one of the large windows.

 

"Hey guys, what can I get you?" their server asked.

 

"Two house specials, a basket to share, coke and whatever Brian would like to drink." Dom ordered easily and hoped Brian wouldn't mind him ordering for him, hoped he'd understand Dom was ordering the best stuff for him.

 

Brian kind of liked that Dom took charge of the situation and ordered for him.  He trusted that the big man was getting something he would enjoy.

 

“Coke please.”  He told the server who wrote it down and then disappeared.

 

“I know you’ll take care of me.”  He winked.

 

“So what do you do with yourself when you’re not building cars, or beating 12 year olds at Tekken?”  He asked, trying to keep the easy conversation thing they’d had earlier going.

 

"Rescue kittens from drain pipes and research rescue dog training with attractive blondes." Dom flirted back with an easy smile.

 

“Oh really?”  Brian said raising an eyebrow.

 

“Better watch out. I might get jealous with all this attractive blonde talk.”  He teased, flipping his hair dramatically.

 

"You know you're prettiest blonde I spend my time with." Dom grinned.

 

Their food arrived quickly.

 

"Okay we got garlic knots, shrimp, fish of the day, fries and I have no idea what this is but it's freaking tasty."

 

Brian grinned.

 

“Hmm well I’m game.”  He took a bite and moaned appreciatively.  Dom was right.

 

“God you’re right.  That’s one of the best things I’ve had in my mouth in a long time.”  He sighed and took another bite.

 

Dom almost choked on his mouthful. "hopefully not the last." He replied more out of habit than actual flirting and then went bright red when he realized the implication

 

Brian grinned.

 

“Me too.”  He replied and then dug into his food.  The conversation lapsed then, but it wasn’t an uncomfortable silence.  

 

Dom ate and was glad tonight was going so much better than their last date.

 

He ate his fill and was pleased Brian looked to be enjoying the food greatly.

 

"So what are you going to name your kitten?" He asked

 

“I have no idea, Stripes?  Maybe.”  The kitten was striped so it kind of fit.  “Smokey?  I seriously don’t know. I kind of want to get to know him first.  How about you?”  He asked Dom taking another bite of shrimp.

 

Dom thought for a good few minutes. “I have no idea. I guess I need to know if it’s a girl or a boy first and then see what feels right.” He admitted.

 

“I’m probably going to put way too much thought into this.” He chuckled.

 

“Oh I know.  I would call it Cat, if that wasn’t the rudest thing in the world.”  Brian joked.

 

Dom gave Brian a look. “I would dis-communicate you, if you were ever so cruel.” He warned.

 

Brian looked appropriately contrite.

 

“I would never do that.  I would be the worst scum of the earth if I did.  No I’ll name him something like Smokey, or Sir Purrsalot the 3rd or something it’s gonna be great.  I can’t wait to get him home.  I always wanted a pet but my dad never let me.”  He sighed.

 

Dom grinned.

 

“I wonder if Tanner would let us have them as firehouse cats?” He pondered. “For the overnight shifts or something, bring them in once or twice a week for play dates.” Dom laughed.

 

“And I like sir Purrsalot the 3rd. Little pompous but it’s cute. He looks more like a Mischief or Shadow though.”

 

“Sir Purrsalot it is, but we’ll call him Shadow for short.”  Brian grinned.

 

“And why not, they could catch mice, and boost morale, and when we get the puppy they’ll have another playmate.”  Brian answered excitedly, then started laughing.

 

“I can hear Tanner now. “Am I running a firehouse or a petshop!”  Brian harumphed in his best impression of their captain.

 

Dom snorted a laugh. “Please Letty and Leon work there, it’s always been a petshop.” He rolled his eyes.

 

Dom finished his drink and yawned loudly.

 

“Sorry.” He apologised. “I’m beat. Such a tough day saving kittens.” He teased.

 

Brian grinned.

 

“Hey I get it, kittens and cute blondes wear you out.  I’ll have to remember that for next time.”  Brian teased as his own face cracked on a yawn.

 

“Guess you’re not the only one that’s tired.”  He joked as he took the bill from the server and slipped a few notes inside.

 

“Come on, lets get home and to bed before we turn into pumpkins.”  He told Dom, getting up from the table.

 

Dom slid a few more notes into the bill and winked to their server on the way out, holding the door for Brian as they exited.

 

“Shall I take us back to the firehouse for your car?” Dom offered. “Or do you have another great idea for tonight?” He asked.

 

“Well if we didn’t have to work tomorrow, I would suggest night swimming or hitting up the arcade so I can kick your ass at Tekken and put your highscore to shame.”  Brian teased with a grin as the walked out to the car.

 

“Unfortunately the only thing I can think of at the moment is bed.”  He yawned.  

 

“Ugh I wish my house wasn’t on the other side of town from the firehouse.” He lamented as he got settled in the car.

 

“I can drive you home if you want.” Dom offered. “And I can swing by in the morning and pick you up. Door to Door service.” He teased.

 

“But if you don’t want me knowing where you live, you should probably run away screaming.” He teased as he headed back towards the fire house.

 

“Well aren’t I a lucky boy.”  Brian teased and then gave Dom directions to his house.  

 

It wasn’t long before the Charger rumbled into the driveway of his tiny bungalow, it wasn’t much but it was his.

 

Dom stopped the car and Brian turned to him.

 

“Well thanks for the ride.  I’ll see you in the morning then?”  

 

“Sure, what time do you want me here? about 5:30?” He offered. “Or if you’re a morning person I can pick you up at 5 and we can get some coffee on the beach before heading in?” He offered and hoped he wasn’t pushing himself into Brian’s life too much. The poor guy had to see him all day at work, out of hours is pushing it he thought.

 

Brian grinned.

 

“Well I’m not a morning person so lets just get that out of the way now, so there are no surprises down the road, but for you, I’ll get out of bed at 5.”  He answered with a slight blush.

 

It was almost surreal, they’d had such a horrifically awkward evening the night before, but today had gone so well, after a few bumps in the road.  Could they keep it up?  Could they actually make it work?  He had no idea, but he wanted to find out.

 

Dom grinned. “How about this, we’ll take a rain check on the sunrise. We’ll leave it for a morning shift, or even an all night date. I’ll take you out to dinner and a movie and then we can go dancing and end up on the beach at ass a clock in the morning and watch the sun come up.” He offered.

 

Brian’s face fell slightly, had he said something wrong?

 

“That sounds great.  It’s probably way too early in this relationship-thing we’ve got going on for you to see me before I’ve had at least one cup of coffee anyway.  I’m not very nice.”  He admitted.

 

“But I’m holding you to that date.”  He said playfully.

 

“How about next shift change?” Dom offered. “I think I’d like spending a whole evening with you, especially curling up on the beach and watching the sun.” Dom blushed at his word vomit.

 

“But you have a good sleep. I’ll pick you up at 5:30.” He promised.

 

Brian grabbed his bag from the back and opened the door to get out of the car.

 

“I’d like that too.”  He said quickly, before he could reveal too much and then got out of the car, leaning down before he closed the door,

 

“Sleep well Dom.  I’ll see you in the morning.”  Then with one last grin he headed to the house.

 

Dom waited for Brian to get inside before he pulled away, memorising the route back to his place so he could find the place in the morning.

 

He got home and fell asleep smiling.

  
***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LINK IS HERE! http://misspsychoticfics.tumblr.com/post/122891746637/so-i-teased-earlier-about-something-different

**Author's Note:**

> Let us know what you think!  
> Comment below or come on by to www.tumblr.com/misspsychoticfics.com :)


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